


Photography of Love

by 1dlover (puffy24)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: 1DFF, F/M, Fanfiction, Romance, Teen Romance, one direction - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-17
Updated: 2014-08-07
Packaged: 2017-11-18 20:38:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 38,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/565044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puffy24/pseuds/1dlover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>Ever since I first saw him on X Factor, I've always had a crush on him. But so do millions of other girls around the world. Louis Tomlinson, you might of heard of him. He's part of One Direction. I never thought I'd be lucky enough to randomly bump into him one ordinary day and become friends with the boys.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>    <strong>Nicole and her best friend Cher never thought they'd see the day where they actually become friends with the lads. Follow their story to see if friendships can turn into something more.</strong><br/></p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

>   
>  This is strictly un-beta'd. If you spot any major mistakes, do let me know. I have been proofreading and finding lots myself.  
> First ever 1D fic so kinda crap tbh. A fluffy sort of plot.  
> Besides the original characters and plot, I own nothing else. No copyright infringement is intended.  
> 

I tapped my foot as I waited impatiently for my tea. I was already late and the line-up at Starbucks was somehow longer than usual. My phone vibrated in my pocket just at the tea was placed in front of me. I picked up the tea and tried to rush out.

_It’s probably Cher, wondering where the hell I am._

I struggled to push the door with my back, get my phone out to check the text and try to take a sip of my Chai tea all at once. It ended in disaster.

I bumped into someone as soon as I made it out spilling tea all over my shirt.

“I’m so sorry,” the voice said as I tried to find something to quickly wipe of the burning tea on my hand.

It was late November but the weather today was warmer than it should be. I had my coat open so I wouldn’t die of a heat stroke.

“Let me buy you another cup.” said the voice. I finally looked up, thinking the voice familiar, to see the most gorgeous boy I have ever seen in my life. His brown hair swiped to the side, stayed perfectly. It was obvious a lot of effort went into the hair. His eyes, the prettiest blue-green, I’ve never seen eyes like that before. His smile just made me want to melt. I pulled myself together before he thought I was some sort of a freak. The boy happened to be none other than Louis Tomlinson.

_Don't freak out, act cool._

“No, it’s alright," I said, "It was my fault, trying to multitask. I –” I was interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing. I pulled it to my ear only to pull it back off. All I heard was screaming.

“Cher? Where are you? Why is there so much screaming?” I asked her having to repeat myself two more times, louder before she understood.

“Nicole! I’m at Westfield, One Direction’s gonna be here today! But I don’t think I’ll get to see them, I can’t even get in and the crowd is huge,” she shouted back, louder than necessary. She sounded like she was going to go into a panic attack if she even caught a glimpse of the boys. “Get here soon and bring your camera!” she continued.

“I’ll see you in a bit.” And with that I cut the line.

“Shouldn’t you be on your way to Westfield right now?” I asked Louis.

“No, there’s still an hour until the signing starts.” His face changed expressions as he realized that I knew him. “So you know who I am?” he asked me, confused.

“Of course I know who you are. Cher’s a massive fan and I live in the UK for goodness sake. If I didn’t know who you are then that’s like the world not knowing about  ** _The Beatles_** ,” I answered. I turned around to go home and get changed. From the corner of my eye I saw that Louis had fallen into step beside me. “So, you were planning on walking there or something, cuz you’re a good 3-4 km away.”

“I was wondering, since you’re going there too …”

“If you could get a lift?” I finished for him. He nodded.

“Of course, it means I can help make at least a hundred girls happy if not more.” I said, not being able to help myself and smiling. You really had to adore the girls and their ‘dedication’ as the boys called it. Cheryl, my best friend, or as she likes to be called Cher, was just obsessed. I can’t remember a time when she wasn't screaming in my ear because the boys were on TV, or their song came on the radio or even during a radio interview. But she’s my best friend so I love her anyway.

Louis followed me all the way to my flat on the fourth floor, just a couple blocks down from the Starbucks, looking like a lost puppy. I had my keys handy, so we were quickly inside. 

**Louis’ POV**

I stood inside the little apartment. It was bright and clean, sparkling for that matter compared to my room in the apartment that I shared with Harry.

Nicole had gone inside her room to get changed but the door was wide open.

“Uhh, Nicole … “ I started to say but was interrupted by her.

“Louis, could you come here for a second?” she called from her room. I was in her room within 10 steps. The apartment was small but it was also cozy. Her room felt like I had entered another world though. There were pictures everywhere. I saw a few different places in the pictures. Venice, Toronto, New York. Most of them were of the attractions but there were some with people, I guessed her parents and her sibling. They were incredible. My thoughts were lost as I heard Nicole calling me to her desk.

Her long dark hair was cascading like a waterfall on her back. When we’d bumped into each other earlier, she was wearing a black beanie and not a strand of hair was visible. She also had the most gorgeous green-brown eyes. She pushed a picture and a sharpie towards me and looked up at me.  _Oh, she wanted me to sign the picture._

The picture was of a girl, she had light brown hair, blue eyes and a cute smile but she didn’t resemble Nicole at all.

“Who am I signing this to?” I asked picking up the sharpie.

“Cher,” she replied as if she expected me to know.

“I thought she might’ve been your sister, even though she looks nothing like you” I replied sheepishly.

“I’m an only child.” She said and then added, “But Cher is like a sister. I hope you don’t mind. I don’t want to see her disappointed if she doesn’t get to see you guys today. She’s been trying to get your autographs since forever and she just sounded so happy today when she called. I’m sure you heard her.”

“It’s not a problem,” I said forgetting my disappointment.

“I’m just going to go get changed while you do that.” She grabbed a top from her over flowing wardrobe and went inside the bathroom.

I wrote Cher a sweet message promising her that we would see her soon, and signed it. I noticed a graduation picture on the desk, with the name Nicole Maria Russo. There were a bunch of other photos as well, a few with her parents and a few with Cher. I looked around the room again and saw that her bed was neatly made. The pillows were placed in the middle like they would in a hotel room. I made my way over to the window. The sun was casting an orange pink hue over the sky as it started to set.

**Nicole’s POV**

I quickly took of the tea stained top and put on the clean one I had just gotten from my closet. I gave myself a quick once over and decided to run the brush through my hair.

I saw Louis staring out the window as I exited the bathroom. The closet door was still open and I felt like something was missing from my outfit. I found a gray cardigan and put it on. Louis still hadn’t moved from his spot near the window.

“Um, did you want something to eat before we leave? There’s still time.” I asked him.

“No, I’m fine,” he replied.

I walked out the room to the kitchen and grabbed a yogurt cup from the fridge and a spoon from one of the drawers. Louis stood in the kitchen doorway looking at me.

“I’m sure I have some biscuits or crisps or something if you want something like that.” I said as I looked though my ‘junk’ cupboard.

“How about a cereal bar?” I offered. “It’s not poisoned, I swear. You won’t die.” I continued talking as I looked over at him. His smiling face broke into a laugh and he took the bar from me.

We were eating in silence when he started asking questions.

“So, you’re a photographer? Those photos are really good. Did you take them?” he complimented and asked all at once.

“Thank you. Yes I did,” I flushed and I felt my skin getting hotter. I never knew how to respond to compliments and I didn’t know how I was supposed to respond to one coming from Louis  _freaking_  Tomlinson. I looked at the time on my phone and noticed it was getting late.

“We should get going if you need to get there by five. There’s going to be so much traffic,” I said. I threw out my empty yogurt cup and put the spoon in the sink. Louis had come up behind me to throw out his cereal bar wrapper and I bumped into his chest when I turned around.

“Holy – ” I think I broke my nose walking into that steel chest.

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. It was definitely my fault this time. I probably should’ve waited for you to move. Are you okay?” he asked concerned.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it.” I assured him gently rubbing my nose to ease the pain. I was lucky it hadn't started to bleed.

I left the kitchen to grab my camera, coat and beanie. Louis was already waiting ready to leave. I quickly put on my beanie while keeping my hair out this time and put my coat on, hiding my hair. I locked the door and we went on downstairs. I led the way towards my red Mini Cooper, which parked a bit up the street and quickly got inside the car. The air had a chill to it now. Louis got in the passenger side and we drove off towards Westfield.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is greatly appreciated :) xx


	2. Chapter 2

**Nicole’s POV**

The fifteen minute car ride was actually very quiet. I had to keep looking at the passenger seat to see that Louis was still sitting there and I wasn’t dreaming. Louis was honestly the loudest of the five lads, but he was sitting there so quietly, it was odd.

“Is everything alright?” I asked.

“Mm, yeah,” he replied.

“Okay, we’re almost there, do you know where I have to drop you so you can meet up with the other lads? I can’t just drop you at the entrance, you’ll get mobbed.”

“Um, no. I’ll call Liam and ask them where they are,” he said pulling out his phone and speed-dialling Liam.

I turned on the radio and kept it quiet enough so that Louis could hear Liam. ‘All About Tonight’ came on. It happened to be one of my favourite songs, so I was tapping my fingers on the steering wheel and mouthing the words, my entire concentration on the song as the traffic crawled on. I could see Louis looking in my general direction from the corner of my eyes, his ear was glued to the phone as he listened to Liam give him some directions to where he should come. He mumbled some “yeah’s ” and “okay’s” and cut the line.

At this point, we were turning onto the street that Westfield is on. He directed me, and I followed his instructions and we arrived at the back, where a van was parked and the lads were standing waiting for Louis. I pulled the car to the side, near the lads and Louis opened the door to get out.

“Thank you so much for the lift,”  he said before exiting the car and waved once he was out. The other four lads mouthed “thanks” and waved as well, as I pulled my way towards the road again. Keeping one hand on the wheel, I smiled and waved back.

I made my way towards the parking and followed the green arrows to find an empty parking spot. It was quite difficult seeing as it was Friday and One Direction was doing their signing. Finally, after what felt like hours, I found a spot. I quickly parked, and texted Cher to find out where exactly she was.

 

[...]

 

“Cher, there is no way you can get in there,” I yelled over the crowd as she dragged me. She was one determined person today.

“Cher? Cher!” I yelled. She pretended she couldn’t hear me as she dragged me through the crowds and we made it to the One Direction signing line-up.

She let go of my sleeve, and dusted her hands, proud of herself.

“Cher, that is no way to behave, you just butted everyone else.” I was really annoyed with her at this point.

“Everything is fair in love and war,” she grinned quoting the famous quote. I fixed her with a look but she kept right on grinning.

An hour or so passed as we stood in line, talking about stuff, mostly how exciting it was being in London, albeit for school, but being in London nonetheless. Suddenly Cher more interested in looking over my shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of the boys as we were fifth in line to see them. It was approaching seven and the line behind us wasn’t that long. The lads were obviously leaving soon.

The smile on Cher’s face told me that she was excited. In fact I didn’t even need to see her face to know she was excited. I was excited, even though I’d already kind of met them. Cher still didn’t know that. I didn’t know what her reaction would've been, so I hadn’t told her.

The order on the table from right to left was: Niall, Liam, Louis, Zayn, and Harry. I had my camera ready to take pictures of Cher with the lads. As we approached the table, Niall looked at me and smiled.

“Hi there Nicole. Thank you for dropping Louis off on time,” he said in his sweet Irish accent as he signed Cher’s copy of ‘Up All Night’. I was surprised he knew my name but I realized that Louis probably filled them in on what happened in the few minutes that they had before the signing started.

“Hi Niall. No problem. Anytime,” I said smiling as Cher posed with Niall over the table. Cher was so confused. It showed in the snap I took. As far as Cher knew, I had never met them before, so how in the bloody hell did Niall know my name?

Next was Liam.

“Hey Nicole, thank you so much for getting Louis here. Who knows where he would’ve been wandering if it weren’t for you.” They didn’t call him “Daddy Direction” for any reason. He was definitely the most serious one in the group.

I blushed but I mumbled a 'no problem' and took a picture of Liam and Cher.

Louis instantly recognized Cher from the picture that he had autographed earlier and was super nice to her.

“Hi Cher. I see you made it inside to see us. Thank you so much for your support,” he said signing the CD cover.

That did it.

Cher fainted and I let go of my camera to catch her. Luckily I had a camera strap around my neck, so the camera didn’t fall to the floor and shatter.

“Cher, Cher, wake up, don’t do this, come on …” I said as I lightly slapped her cheek to wake her up.

 _Oh dear God._ Cher probably couldn’t digest the fact that Louis knew who she was.

I could see Louis talking to security, his brows furrowed. It seemed like he was taking over Liam’s role. The security personnel that Louis talked to came over and lifted Cher in his arms and told me to follow him. Louis nodded and mouthed ‘go on’ so I fell into step behind the man. He took us down a long hall, and opened one of the doors and let us in. This looked like the back of the mall, where they probably kept the janitors’ supplies. The room that we entered was big and spacious. It was furnished with two maroon coloured leather couches, a coffee table and a big screen TV on the wall. He put Cher down on one of the couches and told me to wait here until she wakes up.

I tried to wake her up again, with no luck. She was still passed out. I decided to watch some telly and keep myself entertained until she woke up.

Cher was still unconscious and I was flipping through the channels on the TV when the lads walked in the door.

“She’s still not awake, eh?” Niall asked looking at her sleeping form on the couch.

“No,” I shook my head. “I’m Nicole; by the way, we haven’t officially met.” I said extending my hand. They all decided to give me hugs instead.

We were all just talking about random things, mostly about me, like what I was studying and so on, when Niall seemed a little distracted to me. I followed his gaze to see that Cher was waking up. I ran to her side, asking her if she was fine, if she needed anything, making sure she was okay, while the boys stood there looking at the scene before them. Cher finally looked around her to see the boys and her eyes widened.

The lads smiled and waved at her and Harry asked,

“So, want to grab some pizza?”

I’m wasn't sure if that question was for all of us or just the lads, because truth be told, I know girls out there would kill to spend even five minutes with these boys but I had work to do. I had two major assignments and finals were starting soon too. I saw all the boys looking at me waiting for an answer, so I turned to Cher, only to see her pleading eyes, begging me to say yes. Honestly, I love Cher and I would kill for her if I had to.

“Sure, why not.” Cher’s face broke in a huge smile as I said this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is very appreciated :) x


	3. Chapter 3

**Nicole’s POV**

Louis, Harry and Niall came with me in my car and Cher, Liam and Zayn were going bring the "1D mobile"  back home. This way I couldn’t get lost and even if I did, I had Louis, Harry and Niall to help me get to Zayn’s flat. We were all meeting at Zayn’s because his flat would be the cleanest out of all the boys’ or so was said.

The car ride was as expected – noisy. Louis had turned on the radio, in fact it was blaring. My fingers were tapping on the steering wheel along to the beat, and three boys were singing along to all the songs. They all had beautiful voices so I wasn’t complaining. Harry and Niall tried to get me to sing along but I wasn’t going to sing, at least not in front of them.

We arrived at the lads’ building after some wrong turns, thanks to Louis. Zayn, Liam and Cher were nowhere to be seen.

“Come on,” I heard Harry calling me as I locked the car, “they’re probably already inside. It’s freezing out here.” His hands were shoved inside his pockets and his beanie hid his ears, he looked adorable.

Zayn and Liam had taken the initiative to order the pizzas so it was only a little while until they came. The flat was big. It was a whole lot bigger than my flat. It was also very neat and organized and left my flat looking like a dump. We made ourselves at home on the couches while we waited for the pizza to arrive and made small talk with Niall and Liam. It sounded a lot like 20 questions except the answer had to be more elaborate than just ‘yes’ and ‘no’. The questions started off centered on us being their fans and then drifted off to just being about us.

“Where are you from?” they asked.

“Scarborough,” me and Cher answered simultaneously.

Liam and Niall looked at each other and we started laughing.

“We’ve been best friends since year three, so we do this a lot,” I explained.

“We’re practically twins except we look nothing alike" she said, "and our varied taste in guys,” Cher added. This earned a slap on her arm from me.

“Ow. What was that for?!” she said rubbing at the stinging sensation.

“So, what kind of guys do you like?” Niall asked.

“That,” I looked at Cher.

“What, we’re just curious people.” Liam shrugged.

“Come on, answer the lad.” Louis had come up behind Niall and Liam, and was waiting for an answer as well. Zayn and Harry had also joined the circle now.

I felt myself blushing for the third time today.  _Why did they all have to be so goddamn good-looking?_

Cher, being the Cher I know, started listing off all the things in guys she liked. Her list was about a mile long if not longer, and I already knew what it was. So I tuned her out and checked my mobile for any missed calls or texts. There were none. When I looked back up, I saw and felt six pairs of eyes staring at me.

“And what about you?” Harry looked very interested in knowing. Why was Cher done her list so fast?

I opened my mouth to say anything to get the attention off of me but was cut off by the ringing of the doorbell. I was literally saved by the bell. I breathed a sigh of relief. Zayn left to answer the door and the boys’ attention wasn’t on me anymore. I felt a body sit itself beside me and I looked up to see Louis.

The pizza was gone within minutes. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I bit into a slice. We hadn’t bothered with plates because obviously no one wanted to wash them, so we were very careful to not make a mess.

Soon, the boxes were put by the door and the lights were dimmed. Zayn had put in a horror film, much to the protests of Cher and me. Besides, we should've been heading home.

I pulled my legs onto the couch and hugged my knees. I stared at the screen from behind my knees. Every so often I would get scared at the scene in front of me and would close my eyes and look down. I felt an arm go around my shoulders and I couldn't help but sit a little closer to Louis. The warmth from his body made me feel a little safer from the scary fictional killer that was having a lot of fun on the screen.

Cher would scream every now and then and Niall and Harry laughed at her. She was sitting in between the two of them but it was too dark for me to see anything else.

The big screen flashed in front of us for another 90 minutes before the film finished. Everyone got up and stretched their limbs. I felt my foot falling asleep.  _Oh great, just great. How was I supposed to drive home now?_

“Cher, come on. Get your coat,” I ordered her trying to get my sleepy foot working again. The sleep was evident in her eyes but she got up and made her way to the closet where we had shed our coats.

“It’s too late. You can’t go home at this time at night,” Louis said.

“Yeah, who knows what kind of people are wandering out right now,” Liam piped in, “you can stay the night here.” A chorus of sleepy “yeah’s” echoed through the room.

Cher had stopped trying to look for her coat and stuck her face out of the closet to hear the conversation.

“Alright,” I found myself saying, “but, where will we be sleeping?” I asked quietly tapping my foot on the floor to wake it up.

 

[...]

 

I found myself being led to Louis’ bedroom in his and Harry’s flat. He opened a few drawers and pulled out pajama pants and a dark blue t-shirt, handed them to me and showed me to the bathroom. Cher was still in Zayn’s flat. I was not sure why we were sleeping in different flats but there wasn't anything I could do about that. I changed as fast as I could and made my way towards Louis’ room again. When I had first entered, it was very well a mess, clothes lying about, but now it looked a lot cleaner. He had probably stuffed everything under the bed. He smiled when he saw me enter. His clothes fit me well but were a little loose.

I put my clothes on a chair and sat at the edge of the bed. Louis had taken a pillow and was just leaving the room.

“Goodnight love,” he said on this way out the door.

“Louis?” I called him.

He turned around and answered, “Yes?”

I wasn’t sure how to say this. But I had to.

“You don’t have to sleep on the couch; I don’t mind sharing the bed. I know I’m going to sound pathetic but I’m scared after watching that film,” I admitted.

He actually chuckled at my confession and I felt my cheeks burn for the millionth time since being around him. He brought his pillow back and lay down on the bed. I lay down beside him on the queen size bed and fell asleep within minutes.

 

[...]

 

I woke up the next morning beside Louis’ sleeping form, his hand over my stomach. The covers were half on the floor and I noticed that he must've changed into a t-shirt and pajamas. I tried to keep my breathing as even as I could so I wouldn’t wake him up.

“Morning,” he said in his groggy morning voice, as he looked at me from under his dark lashes. 

“Morning," I replied. "Did I wake you up?” I asked turning, so I could see him better. He removed his hand from my stomach. His hair lay a mess on top of his head but it was cute. And I could get lost in those eyes forever. And his pink lips just looked so kissable but I didn’t dare. Instead I bit my lip.

“No,” he answered quickly and sat up and stretched, his shirt riding up flashing me some of his muscles. He left to go to the bathroom and freshen up.

I sat in bed thinking about how I was absolutely the luckiest girl in the world. Every girl in the world would kill to be me right now. To run into Louis Tomlinson is one thing, but to end up sleeping in his bed, beside him, they would kill me if they found out.

Louis came back in a few minutes later.

“Go wash up and we’ll think about what to do for breakfast,” he said. He avoided any eye contact.

And I couldn't help but wonder why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, re-reading this now, I realize how unlikely this is to happen ... like ever. But it's fanfic lol, so I guess anything goes!  
> Feedback would be lovely :) x


	4. Chapter 4

**Louis’ POV**

Nicole left the room, her dark hair flowing behind her, the confusion evident in her eyes.

I didn’t know what to do. I really liked her. There was something about her ... I couldn't put my finger on it. But I didn’t want to do something too fast and lose her. I couldn’t risk that. I needed to get to know her more before I made a move.

I picked up my phone from the side table and made my way to the kitchen looking through the contacts. I found the one I wanted and called.

He picked up on the second ring.

“Hello?” His Irish accent would give him away in a second.

“Hey Niall. It’s Louis.”  _As if I needed to tell him that._  “What do you think about breakfast?” I asked him.

“At your place? Sure. Cher’s not awake though yet. I’ll wake her up and be right there.” He quickly hung up.

I called Liam next, who said he’d had some breakfast but that he’d come over anyway. Zayn was still sleeping but he woke up to pick up my call. He said he would be here in ten.

I stood in the kitchen unsure of what to do. Nicole came into the kitchen a few minutes later, looking refreshed.

“So what are we having for breakfast?” she asked, a smile tugging at her lips. Her cheeks were a rosy pink, quite possibly from her having splashed cold water on her face. It didn't help the confusing thoughts in my head though.

Pushing all thoughts aside, I was about to tell her that I had no idea about breakfast, when the bell rang. I walked to the door and opened it to find Niall and Cher.

“Good morning,” the two said in sync.  _Everyone seemed to be in an awfully chipper mood today._  I pulled a tight smile and returned the greeting. It seemed like they skipped all the way to the kitchen and Cher did a not-so-silent but somewhat –silent scream as she saw Nicole and ran to hug her. It wasn't ear piercing or anything that you'd expect to hear from a fan.

The only person that was left from this breakfast party was Harry. And regardless of whether or not Cher's earlier scream had woke him up or not, which was highly doubtful as Harry was a deep sleeper, I slowly walked to his room.

I knocked and waited. There was no sound coming from the room so I opened the door and walked in to find Harry sprawled on the bed, fast asleep. I went near him and shook him a little in order to wake him up. He just moaned and pulled the covers over his head and kept on sleeping. I really hadn’t wanted to do this to him but he left me no choice. I yanked the covers off of him and pushed him off the bed. He fell with a loud thud.

“Put some clothes on!” I yelled behind me as I ran out the room.

"Louis, you absolute wanker!" he cursed.

I walked back to the kitchen, the previous incident having put me in a better mood, to find Nicole and Cher standing at the stove; various food ingredients lay on the counter beside them. I could hear faint music, most likely coming from a phone. The two girls were busy giggling; Cher was lightly singing.

Niall, Liam and Zayn were seated at the table. The latter two must've come in while I was waking Harry up. The three lads seemed so fascinated by the girls’ actions; they were staring.

When Nicole had walked into the kitchen earlier, her long hair was still flowing behind her. Now, her hair was tied in a loose bun, strands framing her face. I could see a tattoo on the small of her neck, which was hidden before by her hair. It looked like writing but I was too far to read it. Joining the lads at the table, I asked Niall,

“What are they cooking?”

“Bacon, egg and cheese sarnies,” Nicole replied looking over her shoulder. “Hope it’s alright. I’m not really a breakfast person.”

“No, of course not, I love BECs,” I replied. She smiled at this.

Nicole went back to cooking as it looked like Cher was only keeping her company. They kept talking but it didn’t sound like English at all. They were both fluent and talked animatedly. They really were a sight to look at. Nicole was wearing my clothes and they were a little big for her. Cher was still wearing one of Niall’s t-shirt and flannel pajama trousers, although they seemed to be fitting her. Both had big smiles on their faces. Cher would occasionally pick up a piece of bacon and Nicole would slap her hand away saying something in a familiar language.

“Are you speaking Italian?” I heard Zayn asking.

“ _Sì_ ,” Cher answered.

"Wha – I thought you were English, Cher's such an English name," Niall wondered out loud.

"Actually, Cher is a French name," Cher said.

"Oh now don't say that Nicole isn't an English name either," Liam said.

"It's Greek or German I believe," Cher answered.

"It's Greek," Nicole confirmed.

"Besides, what's in a name?" Cher asked, "We  _are_  English, we were born in England," Cher added, "we just happen to have Italian roots."

"Still wish I had an Italian name though," Nicole said.

"What? Why?" Zayn asked. "Nicole's a pretty name."

"All my cousins have perfectly nice Italian names, like Maria, Valeria ... and then there's me, random Greek name," she stated.

"But like Cher said, what's in a name?" I said, "I can't imagine you not being a Nicole or Cher not being a Cher if you had any other names," I added in my two pence. Though somehow I managed to confuse everyone with that statement.

"But if they weren't named Nicole and Cher, then they'd be used to whatever other name it was that they were given, no?" Liam asked. He did make sense.

"Personally, I don't think it's the name that gives you the identity," Zayn said, " _You_ give your name an identity."

As us four boys pondered over this name issue, the girls continued with their task of cooking. They would giggle every now and then at something one of us would say in our discussion. And as we continued with our discussion, no one noticed Harry walk into the kitchen.

“What the –" Harry said as he looked a little shocked to find it full of people and two girls cooking. The kitchen was his territory although I’m sure he didn’t care that the girls were cooking us breakfast. "What are we having?” he asked a minute later, the apparent shock of seeing the girls wearing off.

“Tea and BECs,” Liam responded this time. The girls still hadn't seen Harry walk in as they continued having their own conversation.

“How are they cooking the eggs? I can’t find my frying pan and I still haven’t gotten another one,” Harry wondered out loud.

He interrupted them. “Um girls," having got their attention, he asked, "How are you cooking the eggs?”

“I'll let you explain this one Cher," Nicole answered, smirking, as she went back to tending the bacon.

"Um," Cher began, "... well, you see, Nicole went crazy looking for your frying pan and I happened to remember your tweet from a few months ago that you had lost it and as a result you were cooking eggs on the bottom of a wok. So we found your wok." Cher flushed as she finished her explanation.

"Aw, look at you, you're blushing!" Nicole teased her.

"Shut up!" Cher pushed her best friend.

"But you're such a stalker, how do you remember these things?"

"I do have a better memory than you," Cher retorted.

"But it is kind of stalkerish, right Niall?"

"I don't know I find it kinda cute," Niall answered.

"Oh, Niall finds stalkers cute, so according to Niall I'm not cute then," Nicole joked.

"I never said that," Niall defended himself.

"But that's what you meant," she said. It was obvious that she was joking.

"You're both very cute, now can we get some food, I'm starving," Zayn interrupted the banter.

She laughed but replied,

 “Yes, as soon as I’m done this last bacon. The tea’s ready if you want to start pouring that. And since you’re not going to be eating the bacon, I’ll make your sandwich and you can start eating.”

The sandwiches were in front of us in five minutes and the tea was poured in our mugs. We all chatted as we ate.

“Yesterday, you said you’re from Scarborough, that’s in North Yorkshire?” Harry asked his voice still husky.

“Yep,” Cher answered.

“And you’ve been best friends since …” Harry trailed off waiting for Nicole or Cher to finish the sentence.

“Year three, Hazza.” Niall finished it for him.

Harry raised one of his eyebrows in question. The question being, how the hell do you know?

“What?” Niall shrugged, “Nicole said so yesterday.”

“That’s right. You actually remember,” Nicole said smiling. Her smile was dazzling.

Cher whispered something in Nicole’s ear and she turned a few shades of red.

“Oh God. Stop it Cher,” Nicole playfully shoved Cher. They were sharing one chair and Cher almost fell off, laughing as she said something in Italian.

We finished breakfast with some more jokes and talk. Nicole and Cher cleared up the table and Harry volunteered to help with the dishes.  _Harry helping with the dishes, I need to see what’s going on._

I noticed that he had his ‘full charm’ turned on and was flirting with the girls. I didn’t think I stood a chance with Nicole anyway, so I let Harry continue joking and flattering with them.

Nicole came out of the kitchen a few minutes later.

“Harry kicked me out of the kitchen. He obviously wanted privacy while flirting. Does that even make any sense?” Nicole asked as she sat in the empty seat beside me in the living room. Zayn and Niall were playing COD and Liam was rooting for Niall to beat Zayn. All you could actually hear were obscenities coming from Niall as he died yet again.

“He’s obvious, that one isn’t he?” I replied with a cheeky smile.

"Very," she replied. She noticed the game going on, and gasped a little, before saying,

“You’re playing COD. I wanna play.” She sounded like a five year old wanting a toy from the store but it was cute.

“Do you know how to, we’re not teaching you if you don’t,” Zayn replied without peeling his eyes of the big screen.

“I know how to very well and I’m sure I can beat you,” Nicole replied with confidence.

She played against the winner of the game, which was Zayn. And she only lost by 300 points. Zayn, Liam and Niall were so shocked and Harry and Cher had come in half way through the game, but were too busy talking the entire time.

“Good game,” Zayn was utterly amazed at her skills. “Where did you learn to play?” he asked her.

“I played against James all the time," she answered nonchalantly, adding "James is Cher’s older brother.” She eyes wandered to the clock in the room.

“Well, I really should be getting home. Thank you for letting us stay the night.” She got up quickly. “Cher, come on, I’ll drop you at yours and then go home and finish my projects.” She left the room to go get changed.

She came back again wearing her clothes from last night, found her coat in the closet and waited for Cher to come back from Niall’s apartment. Cher had also gone back to get changed.

We were saying goodbyes in a few minutes as Cher appeared dressed and ready to go. The TV was turned off and all the lads hugged the girls one by one. I was the last to hug Nicole. She gave me a quick hug, but her hands lingered on my back for what I felt was a second too long. I could feel the heat from her fingers through the thin fabric of my tee.

We got their twitter names and promised we would follow them so we could always talk. They weren’t like some of our fans that screamed or cried because they saw us. They treated us like normal people and the lads would agree with me, that we were really grateful of them for not shrieking in our ears all the time. We could never get used to all the screaming. Ever.

We dropped them off till Nicole's red Mini and saw them speed down the small road, probably never to be seen again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is lovely :) Thanks for reading. xx


	5. Chapter 5

**Nicole’s POV**

It had been one whole day since Cher and I had spent the night at the boys place but I seemed to have trouble forgetting one face. I caught myself staring into space, thinking about him, while I was trying to work.

_It’s never going to happen, Nicole, just forget about him._

It was three in the afternoon on Sunday. I spun my chair around and got off. My music was blasting loud enough for me to hear it in my room and nowhere else. It helped me concentrate - but not today. I just couldn’t concentrate. Cher had called me earlier asking me if I wanted to go out and explore the city a little. I’ve been living in England all my life and living in London for over a year now and I had yet to see half the attractions here.

I walked into my kitchen to make some tea, hoping that tea would help me concentrate. I didn’t take long to make; I poured the tea into a mug and went back to my room. As soon as I sat on the chair in front of the computer, the doorbell rang.

Silently debating with myself on whether or not to kill Cher, if it was her on the other side of the door of course, not that I would have expected anyone else to be there, I walked to the door, tea filled mug still in hand.

I opened the door, to find none other than Louis standing there. You can imagine my surprise but the hard expression on my face immediately turned into a softer one.

“Hi," I could barely think at this point, "I wasn’t expecting you."

Realizing that I had just sounded plain rude, I quickly added, "Couldn’t resist my charm, could you now?” I teased as I gestured for him to come in.

“Hey,” he replied as he stepped inside. I could see a tint of red to his cheeks.

“Tea?” I offered.

“No thanks,” he shook his head. “I need you to get ready, we’re going out.”

“Going out where?" I asked. "I – sorry, but I really don’t have the time to go out.” I told him.

“Come on, please,” he tried to persuade me. “You’ll love this place and you can get lots of good photos too.”

I stood there tapping my foot as I thought about it. I was always ready to take photos. But I had a project to complete. What was I supposed to do? I could faintly hear _Big Time Rush's_ ‘Time of Our Life’ coming from my room.

“Where would we be going?” I asked, being the curious person that I am.

I could see a smile tugging at his lips. “I can’t tell you,” he said, "It's a surprise."

“I hate surprises.” And I really do hate surprises; I wasn't saying that to just say so.

“You’ll love this one," he said, shooting me a smile. _How could I not say yes to that smile?_

"Now come on, go get ready. Dress warm, it’s freezing outside.” He pushed me into my room and closed the door locking me inside. There was no escape.

Cher would kill me if she found out that I "agreed" to go with Louis but refused to go out with her. I wouldn’t tell her and if Louis didn't either, then we were good. I felt horrible for doing so but if she found out she would not only be disappointed with me but very possibly mad at me; and I couldn't have that. Plus, how was I supposed to say no to a member of a boy band?

I gathered my thoughts and quickly changed my clothes, taking quick sips of my tea in between. I ended up wearing a grey scoop neck long-sleeved t-shirt, with dark blue skinny jeans. I took my hair out of the bun it was in and brushed it. The only makeup I put on was eyeliner and mascara and nothing that was too defining.

The music was still playing and 'What Makes You Beautiful' came on just as I finished my makeup.

_Aw man, I love this song!_

I put on socks, grabbed my beanie and unplugged my phone that was charging in my computer. I paused the playlist so I could come back to it again and grabbed my camera that was sitting beside my graduation picture. I walked out of the room all ready to see Louis waiting at the front door for me.

"Come on slowcoach, we'll be late," he said with a grin.

I grabbed my black coat, put on my boots and beanie in record time. Louis grabbed my hand and gently tugged me all way down the stairs to the front lobby, not wanting to wait for the lift. The jittery feeling in my stomach just wouldn't stop. It wasn't that bad when I was around him but when he touched me my skin feels a sort of electric shock.

There was a black cab waiting at the front doors of the building. Louis held the cab door open for me and ran to the other side as soon as I was seated. My hand still felt tingly from Louis holding it. The driver took off without asking anything and I assumed that he already knew of the destination.

Louis took over a tour guide role as he pointed out buildings and their significances to London. Every now and then the cab driver would add in something too. By the time we got to this secret destination, I now knew more about London then I did before.

I was pleasantly surprised as I got out and stood on the pathway to see the London Eye in the distance, behind the park. I’d never been to the London Eye before and I was glad that I’d agreed to come with Louis.

Louis stood beside me smiling. I grinned at him and asked,

“How did you know?”

“Know what?” he acted confused.

“Know that I’d never been here before?” I asked.

“I’ve got my sources,” he said, hooking his arm around mine and taking me across the park. He guided me towards the beginning of the line-up and I wondered why.

About 10 feet away from the front of the line, behind a dozen or so people, stood Harry, Zayn, Liam, Niall and Cher.  _Oh God! She’s totally gonna do me in!_

“There they are.” Harry pointed to me and Louis for the others to see.

“I told you she wouldn’t say no if Louis went to get her,” Cher said, beaming.

 _Could she be any lou–?_  So this was all her part of her grand plan to get me out of the flat. It made sense now why Louis knew I’d never been here before.

“No one can resist the charm of us Tomlinson's,” Louis joked as we blended ourselves in the line.

After quick hello's and hugs with the lads, I got to Cher.

“Sorry,” I whispered in her ear as we hugged.

"It's fine," she said sounding a little disappointed. But then she quickly spoke in Italian. " _I totally understand you wanting to stay home to finish your project but then a hottie shows up at your doorstep and you just couldn’t say no, I get it._ "

“I said I was sorry,” I folded my hands over my chest, annoyed with her.

“Cheer up,” she said pulling my cheek. “We’re finally going to see all of London!”

And hell, she knew just how to put a smile on my face. She wasn't my best friend for any reason.

Since the London Eye is a tourist attraction and most Londoners have seen it already, the crowd was all tourists and nobody recognized the world’s hottest boy band in between them.

The family in front of us were having trouble and it seemed that the only language they knew how to speak was Spanish. I knew that Niall spoke fluent Spanish but he was busy having a deep conversation with Harry and Liam so I decided to go and help them out.

I had decided to learn Spanish because I loved it. The way it sounded and everything about the language. I found Spanish to be much more romantic than French, but that's just my opinion of course. I knew French as well but I just loved Spanish a lot more and knowing Italian made it that much easier to learn other similar languages.

The head of the family of four, a man who seemed to be in his late thirties, was so relieved when I asked them if they needed help in Spanish. I helped them get their tickets and Liam came behind me to buy ours. When I tried to stop him from paying for Cher and me, he just wouldn't budge.

Shaking my head, I fell back in line.

“You know Spanish?” Niall asked. He must've seen me as I helped that family.

I just nodded in response but Cher decided to add,

"And French."

Surprised, Niall then started a small conversation with me in Spanish and Harry, Zayn and Louis came two sentences in saying " _si, si_ ," to just about everything – and very seriously at that too. The conversation fell apart in moments. Cher was nearly in stitches at Niall's face.

"Oi, bugger off you lot," Niall finally said after a few moments of trying to keep an actual conversation.

Liam called us out having secured the tickets, which ended the banter though Louis and Zayn kept pestering Niall as we walked closer to the Eye.

We got into the same car as the family before and the group behind us. Louis helped me on and we made our way to the back where I could take photos without being disturbed. The family thanked me once again as Louis and I went past them to get to the farthest side from the entrance.

The entire ride was supposed to take a half hour and we were slowly inching upwards.


	6. Chapter 6

**Louis’ POV**

She had her camera out and was expertly adjusting the lens and taking snaps. I watched her for another five minutes, before she turned around and asked curiously,

“What are you looking at?”

“Nothing,” I replied, a little too quickly.

She raised an eyebrow but quietly turned back to take more pictures.

We were close to the top of the wheel when Cher and the lads came over to where I was standing with Nicole. Cher didn't stop however, and went straight to Nicole and they stood there conversing.

It seemed to be my turn to get ragged on this time. Harry stood beside me and nudged me, and raised an eyebrow in Nicole's direction.

"Don't forget about us mate," Zayn said as he hugged me from behind. Niall flicked at my ear and Liam tried to ruffle my hair.

"Stay away from the hair," I threatened, narrowing my eyes. Of course I was joking and Liam knew so as well, so he ruffled my hair anyway.

I could see Nicole and Cher looking over to see what all the commotion was about as they continued talking.

Cher walked back over to us but that didn't stop with the teasing. I looked to see Nicole countdown using her fingers ... 3, 2, 1 and then the flash of her camera went off.

When the lads realized what had just happened, they insisted that she take more pictures. So she took a ton of silly photos of the six of us, all making funny faces or doing crazy poses. We even did a pose where the five of us held Cher. She was more than delighted at this.

Then Nicole and Cher switched places and Cher was behind the camera. She struggled to work the camera in the first few minutes but Nicole helped her out and ran back to us to get in her pose. We took a few pictures with Nicole as well. It was all a great laugh.

The lads slowly drifted off and only Nicole and I were left.

For this next photo, Cher was shouting the instructions. It involved Nicole having to kiss my cheek or at least pretend to. She was all laughs and giggles about this absurdly cute pose and didn’t think twice about it. The closeness was really testing the best of me.

For the next one, she had me turn towards my left and Nicole towards her right and we ended up staring at each other. I looked into her beautiful green-brown eyes to find them staring back at me. Her face had on minimal make-up and from what I could see; all she was wearing was a little eyeliner and a little mascara. She was truly beautiful in a way I couldn’t even begin to describe. We just stood there and drank each other in with our eyes. It didn't even feel awkward. It felt just right.

A flash brought the two of us back to the real world. Nicole realizing what had just happened looked in the other direction biting her lip as her cheeks flushed.

Cher looked apologetically in my direction as she realized what she had done. She mouthed a ‘sorry’ and all I could do was shrug.

We were nearing the bottom now, so we got ready at the door to quickly get out. I held Nicole’s hand and guided her out the car just as I had guided her on. We waited for everyone to get out and meet us. It was just after four in the afternoon so we decided to sit around Jubilee Gardens and kill some time before getting dinner. Nicole was protesting and kept saying she needed to get home but gave up when no one was willing to let her go.

All of us walked and found a nice clear spot, away from everyone else. It was the end of November and the ground was cold but we could care less.

A few fans that saw and recognized us came running quickly to get autographs and pictures. They noticed Nicole and Cher with us but didn’t say anything. Nicole and Cher took their cameras and took a couple of pictures for them before returning them with smiles on their faces.

The lads and I were too far away to actually hear anything the two girls asked Nicole or Cher but we heard laughter coming from the girls before they wrote something down on a piece of paper. They even gave the fans quick hugs before coming over to us again.

“What was that all about?” Zayn asked.

“They wanted our twitters for some reason.” Cher shrugged and sat down.

Nicole sat down beside her best friend and turned her camera on again. She was lost in her own little world and would occasionally smile at a picture or something one of the lads would say. Niall and Harry were having their own banter and Harry was on top of Niall, squishing him to death. I was too busy looking at Nicole to know what they were going on about.

“I have an idea ... instead of freezing ... our butts out here ... how about ... we just go back to Nicole’s and she can cook us dinner?” Cher said, her teeth chattering in between the words.

“Sure. I don’t mind. And you can finish my project, in payment for dinner,” Nicole replied without looking away from her camera.

"I'll gladly do that," Cher said, "but if you fail, that's your problem."

“We’ll all help. Come on.” Harry helped the girls up and we made our way to the street to get cabs.

We quickly found two cabs waiting to get hired and spread ourselves out. Cher went with Harry, and Zayn and the rest of us took the other cab. This way Cher could direct their cab to Nicole’s if their driver took the wrong turn. I sat in the front and Nicole got squished in between by Niall and Liam. They were all looking at her camera and commenting on some of the pictures. I was busy directing the driver when I heard kissing noises from the back. I turned to see Niall and Liam, both making kissy faces and noises and teasing Nicole. If I had to guess, it would be because of the last two pictures that Cher took. I couldn’t help myself but smile because I could see Nicole turning red for the hundredth time since I’d met her.

Niall started to sing “Nicole and Louis sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-”

“What are you, five?” Nicole asked, trying to sound annoyed but smiling, and took this time to slap Niall on his arm. He pretended to be hurt.

Our two cabs made it to Nicole’s building right after the other and all of us took the lift to the fourth floor. Nicole quickly opened the door and the lads and I made ourselves at home.

As we did so, Nicole had gone into her room and come back with a change in attire. She was now wearing sweats and a loose white tee but she managed to look pretty even in sweats. Her hair was up in a bun again, just like it was when I came to get her earlier. She walked into the kitchen and we could hear her rummaging through her drawers and cupboards to find everything she needed.

“Are you guys hungry?” she called from the kitchen.

“Is that even a question to ask? _Yes!_ ” answered Niall.

“Niall, sorry, I totally forgot that you’re always hungry.” I could hear her smiling and I couldn’t even see her. “Come here and take whatever you want then.”

Niall, Harry and Zayn decided to grab everything junk they could find in her cupboards and brought it back to the lounge for everyone to share. There were a few bags of regular Walkers and Oreo boxes. Nicole had come from the kitchen to give us some bowls, so we weren’t fighting over the bags and making a mess.

“I’m sorry there’s only regular here. I don’t like any other flavours,” she said as she placed the bowls on the coffee table. Niall shrugged as he tore into a bag and poured its contents into a bowl, which funnily, he was sharing with Cher. Harry decided, as the great cook that he is, to see if Nicole needed any "help". He winked as he got up and left. I wasn't sure what it meant.

Cher and Niall were in deep conversation, Liam and Zayn had their attention on the telly and I sat trying to concentrate on anything but the laughter coming from the kitchen.

I managed to keep myself busy – watching the TV, texting, looking through my mentions on Twitter– to hear anything but then a scream erupted from the kitchen, followed by some angry sounding words in Italian.

Everyone in the lounge went quiet and looked at each other.

Cher winced at something that Nicole said. Even Niall made a face, mostly surprised at whatever it was Nicole said next. Spanish and Italian being close, I'm sure he understood what was being said.

No one asked either of the two what was being said, instead as Cher got up and quietly made her way towards the kitchen, the rest of us followed in tow to see for ourselves what the commotion was all about.

Just as we neared the kitchen, we heard Harry gasp – loudly.

Harry stood in the middle of the kitchen, also with flour on his face, a cheeky grin plastered to his face.

"What in the bloody hell happened here?" Cher asked.

Nicole stood at the sink, with what looked like flour in her hair. As she turned, everyone gasped. She also had flour on her face and needless to say, she didn't look happy.

Niall was the first to start laughing at the sight and had everyone else laughing in a matter of moments. Even Nicole who had looked like she was going to kill Harry was laughing along.

Shaking her head, she walked past us to clean up.

"Harry, why'd you do that?"Liam asked when we finally caught our breaths.

"She was asking for it," he replied with a cheeky grin.

The floor had a patch that was literally covered in flour. I looked at Harry, shaking my head.

"You do know you're cleaning this," I let him know.

"B-but," Harry said looking at me to let him off the hook.

"No buts," I said. "You make the mess, you clean the mess."

I got Cher to get Harry a broom and dustpan and had her supervise him as he cleaned up.

I ended up supervising Cher supervising Harry because we all know that Harry can be persuasive and knew that he'd try to get Cher to do the cleaning up.

Liam stood at the stove to make sure nothing burned and to stop Niall from eating everything. Even Zayn was intent on tasting everything. The kitchen smelled delicious and I couldn't wait to try whatever it was that Nicole was making.

**Nicole’s POV**

_Cool. Very cool. And mature too._

I quickly changed my tee and washed my face trying to get all the flour of my face. The only way the flour in my hair would come out was if I washed it. And as I didn't have the time to wash my hair, I just took it out of the bun and shook it a little above the bath so I didn’t get flour everywhere. I walked out of the bathroom and into my bedroom and picked up my flour coated t-shirt to throw into the wash. I opened the door to my room and walked right into Harry.

“Ow, why is everyone after my nose?” I said, rubbing my nose to ease the pain. My nose is seriously going to break like this. Both Louis and Harry had steel-like chests and I had a delicate nose.

“Sorry,” Harry said in his deep voice. “I was waiting for you to come out so I can use the loo to clean myself.”

His face was still covered in flour but he was flashing another one of his cheeky grins.

“First door on your left,” I directed him still holding my nose.

I threw the t-shirt into the hamper in the laundry room and made my way to the kitchen to get everything for dinner ready, where much to my surprise, I found that all the flour had been cleaned off the floor.

"It's tasting very good," Niall said as soon as he saw me, giving me a thumbs up. He was standing at the stove, spoon in hand, and I couldn't help myself but laugh at that.

I sent everyone out, not allowing any of them to stay, including Cher, as I finished with the cooking. I'd made some simple gnocchi as the starter and pasta from a special family old recipe as the main dish. As for desert, I had bought a few tubs of ice cream during a sale at Asda's the week before, so there was that.

[...]

Dinner was quite the event. The boys were all over the place, talking over each other, laughing and playfully punching each other. It was quite a sight but a pretty one at that and quite lively.

Niall asked for refills twice, for both the gnocchi and the pasta. I was flattered. Cher joked about saying that Niall had fallen in love with my food and he was never gonna let me go. He actually went a bit pink in the cheeks, and the boys didn't let that go for a while.

It was a completely different night tonight compared to the few months I'd been in London now. I'd usually spend a quiet night in, never cooking because what point was there in cooking for one person? And the days Cher came over, we'd usually order out.

The project that I was supposed to have been working on was entirely forgotten. It didn't even matter. I was having a good time and I didn't want the night to end.

As I cleared the plates and piled them into the sink, the boys and Cher rummaged through my (small) film collection. They settled on watching _Transformers_  and put in the disk as soon as I was back with a bowl of ice cream for Niall.

"Thanks love," Niall said as he took the bowl from me. He had requested a bowl when everyone else had shook their heads saying they were "full after having that fantastic dinner". Their words not mine.

I found myself a seat, the only one left, beside Louis. His arm went around my shoulders as the film began and I couldn’t stop my stomach from doing somersaults at his touch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback would be lovely :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Nicole’s POV**

I woke up to the sound of my alarm. Today was the day of my last final of the term. I was excited to finally get this term over with and do whatever I pleased for the next month or so. I threw the covers off me and made my way towards the bathroom to brush my teeth and take a shower.

Soon after, I had a mug full of piping hot tea and I was sitting at my desk looking through my notes. I heard my phone vibrate on the hard table surface. I had two texts from Cher.

The first one said:

_**Good luck on you exam love :) you’ll finally be done today! :D xx** _

The second one said:

_**Meet me at our usual place at seven. I really need to see my best friend :) xx** _

Our usual place was a nice Italian restaurant called _Bocca Di Lupo_. Whenever we felt like having Italian food, which is usually too many times a month, this was the place to be.

I sent her a quick text that I’ll see her there and then went back to my studying.

I made myself a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch and ate while reviewing. 

 

[...]

 

I walked out of the exam room, two hours later, a free bird. Well, at least until next year. Cher still had an exam next week, so I had to wait for her to finish before we could go back home for the holidays.

I got home, to find that there was still hours until I was supposed to meet up with Cher. I tried killing time by checking my emails, Facebook notifications, Twitter and Tumblr.

Twitter really gave me quite the surprise. I found that my follower count had increased immensely, which I wasn't really sure why. I hardly ever tweeted. I also found that I had over a 100 mentions. It was only when I checked those that I realized what this was all about.

A lot of the tweets that had mentioned me went saying things like "you stay away from the boys" to "you're not even pretty". It was weird to find such hateful things being said to me by complete strangers. They didn't know anything about me, yet I'd made an impression on them; obviously not the good kind.

There were a few, very very few, tweets that said something along the lines of "ignore the hate, they wish they were you".

In fact, ignoring Twitter entirely, I went onto Tumblr. At least no one knew me on that.

The only-1D blog that I shared with Cher, I noticed, hadn't been updated in a few days. With both of us being busy with exams, that wasn't a surprise. So I spent the next little while on Tumblr, getting our blog up-to-date with everything. It's actually quite insane how when you're on Tumblr, time literally flies. One moment, the clock read 4:16, the next it read 5:48.

I quickly got out of my seat, even though I was tempted to post the next picture of the boys I saw. I knew if I gave into posting one more picture, I'd never get off and end up spending the night on Tumblr.

I washed my face with cold water to freshen myself up after those two hours staring at a computer screen. The restaurant wasn’t a five-star restaurant, where you would end up paying hundreds of pounds for a tiny little serving, it was a small restaurant that served some of the best Italian food I’ve ever had. I dressed casual in white jeans, a creamy coloured cable knit sweater and a white tank underneath. I left my hair out since I don’t ever really wear it in any other way. I wore some bracelets that went well with my top and I quickly finished with my make-up, again nothing that looked like I’d just dipped my face into a box full of colourful powder; just some foundation to even out my skin, a bit of eye shadow, eyeliner and mascara; just the usual. 

I grabbed a cab from the street after I put on my coat, wore my favourite ankle booties, grabbed my bag and locked the door to my flat.

I arrived at the restaurant just minutes before seven. I was led to an empty reserved table and I chose to drink from the glass of water while I waited for Cher.

I looked through the menu even though I'd pretty much had it memorized. As my eyes wandered over the edge of the menu, I spotted Louis walking into the restaurant. For a moment, I thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me. But when he spotted me, he waved; his already smiling face lighting up.

“Hey, what a coincidence,” he said coming up to my table.

“Hey. Yeah, you can say that again," I said getting up to give him a quick hug. "Are you here with someone?” I asked him.

“I'm supposed to be meeting with Harry. He told me he found this new Italian restaurant and that we  _had_  to try it out. What about you?”

“The food here is pretty great. I’m supposed to be meeting Cher but she’s late," I revealed. "I should call her and see where she's made it to.”

I sat back down as I dialed Cher. As I heard the endless ringing on Cher’s end, I looked at Louis who was busy frowning and texting. He was wearing a greyish-brown dress shirt buttoned all the way to the top like Liam wears his shirts, beige skinnies, folded on the bottom, and white TOMS. His dark blue coat hung over his shoulders perfectly and only helped him look more defined.

Cher picked up after what felt like hours.

"Hey," she said. She sounded tired.

“Hey. Where have you made it to? Guess who I just ran into here?” I said into the phone quietly but loud enough for her to hear me.

“Who did you run into?” she asked.

“Louis," I answered, "he’s supposed to be meeting up with Harry for dinner. Get here soon, I’m waiting for you.” I said into the phone, playing with my necklace.

“Coco,” she said. It was a nickname she gave me back when we were eight and it immediately made me feel that something was wrong. “I’m not feeling too well. I don’t think I can come.”

“Are you alright?" I asked. Damn myself for jinxing me. "Do you want me come by and bring dinner?”

“No, no. Just enjoy dinner with Louis and Harry,” she replied.

“Are you sure? It’s not a problem. I’ll just bring some takeout and keep you company, we can watch a film or something if you’re up for it,” I insisted, "have a quiet night in, the two of us."

“No. I’ll be fine. Just enjoy your dinner and come by tomorrow or something if you feel like it.” She really didn’t seem to be in the mood for anything.

“Alright, I’ll come by tomorrow then,” I promised.

“See you then,” she said and cut the line.

 

**Louis’ POV**

I looked up as I heard the jingling of Nicole’s bracelets as she put her phone on the table.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Cher’s not feeling well. She’s not coming,” she sounded dejected.

“Well, it seems that Harry had something come up and can’t meet me either,” I told her, “So I guess it’s just you and me.”

She started to smile.

“Why are you smiling?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Don’t you think it’s weird that both of our best friends couldn’t make it today? It's either a very freaky coincidence, or it was planned,” she said.

Now that I thought about it, it did seem weird.

“Oh well,” I shrugged. “Let’s just have dinner. I’m starving.” I patted my stomach for added effect and earned a laugh from Nicole.

We placed our orders, Nicole pointed out some of her favourites and “must try” dishes. We made small talk until our food arrived. It wasn’t until our dinner that we actually had a proper conversation.

“So,” I started, “tell me a bit about you.”

“Well, my name’s Nicole,” she said with a laugh. After a bit more urging, she said, “I’m 19. I’m taking a photography course at college ...” she stopped talking again.

“Wait, you’re only 19?” I was shocked at this information.

“Yeah. Why?” she asked casually.

“I don't know. You seem really mature, I never thought you'd only be 19,” I answered her.

“Really?" she asked, "even after that stint with Harry?"

"Right, I take that back then," I said, unable to help myself but chuckle at the sad face she made.

Throughout dinner, after lots of encouragement, I knew a lot more about Nicole. For example, her favourite colour is purple, her dad owns a restaurant back in Scarborough, and she has two pets, a cat named Whiskers and a golden lab named Spots because she wanted to name it Spots even though it has no spots. She learned to cook from her chef dad; that she likes to read and would’ve taken English but didn’t know what she would actually do with an English degree.

By the end of the question session, I realized she had a lot more in common with the other lads than me. Come to think of it, she had nothing in common with me.

That was quickly forgotten as it was time for desert next. We had Blood Orange gratina with almonds and mint, another one of Nicole’s recommendations. It was delish just like everything else.

When the bill arrived at our table, both of us immediately reached out for it, my hand touching hers in the process and sending sparks wherever her skin was touching mine. We had a bit of a stare down before I swiftly pulled the little black book from under her hand. She sat back in her seat pouting.

“You know this isn’t a date so you shouldn’t be paying for me,” she said as I slipped my credit card inside the book.

“I know," I said. "But I always pay for girls,” I told her winking.

“So very gentlemanly of you Mr. Tomlinson,” she said taking a sip of her water. I could still see the colour rise in her cheeks.

Before we knew it, we were standing outside the restaurant wondering what to do next.

“How'd you get here?” I asked her.

“Taxi," she said. "It’s Friday, traffic is slow and I didn’t want to spend two hours on the road to have dinner," she answered before adding, "also just in case Cher and I got a little drunk, at least I’d get home in one piece.”

“I’m sure we could’ve had a little to drink too and you could've still make it home in one piece,” I joked nudging her.

She laughed; her hair flew behind her in the wind.

It was starting to snow. Nicole seemed to notice it too because she was holding out a gloved hand in front of her trying to catch a snowflake.

We walked around randomly for five minutes before we found ourselves in front of Golden Square, a small park that was not far from the restaurant.

“Do you have anywhere to be?” I inquired of her.

“No. Why?” she responded.

“Come on.” I grabbed her hand and led her inside the small park.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nicole's outfit: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=42146119
> 
> Feedback is very welcome! :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Louis’ POV**

We sat around in the park, watching people walk past us hand in hand. There was a busker playing guitar and singing along. He ended one song and started strumming to the next. A familiar, very recent, tune played out from the man’s guitar and I could see Nicole sitting with me trying her hardest not to start dancing to it. Her head was shaking from side to side, like we had been doing for the past ten minutes we’d be here.

I jumped to my feet. It was kind of sudden and I seemed to have shocked Nicole with the unexpected act as well.

“May I have this dance?” I asked her as I held my hand out in front of her.

She laughed but put her gloved hand in mine and I pulled her up to her feet.

“My name is Louis, nice to meet you, can I tell you baby,” I changed Olly’s name to mine and kept singing. As I did, the busker slowly stopped singing but gave me backing vocals to sing along to.   
“Look around there's a whole lot of pretty ladies;   
But none like you, you shine so bright, yeah.”

I twirled Nicole and that contracted another laugh from her.

“I just wanna, ooh, oh baby  
I just want you to dance with me tonight  
So come on, ooh, oh baby  
I just want you to dance with me tonight.”

I didn’t know the other verses to the song, so I just hummed along to the singing man, pulling stupid dance moves and twirling and spinning Nicole some more. We had drawn a crowd around us that was clapping to the beat of the song. Some were pointing their cameras at us and others were putting money into the busker's open guitar case.

The small crowd burst out into an enthusiastic applause as the song ended and so did our dance. The two of us curtsied to the group as the singing man started another song.

A few of the people recognized me and asked for autographs. Though, because I didn't have a pen or sharpie or anything to write with, I settled with taking quick photos with anyone that asked. It was slightly odd to be only taking pictures with adults but they were all saying that their daughters or granddaughters were big fans and would love it if they could get a picture.

As the last of the crowd dispersed, I noticed Nicole sitting in the same spot that we were at before our dance.

I approached her and she looked up, a smile tugging at her lips.

“That was the most fun, and most random thing I’ve ever done in a long time!” She looked truly happy and I was glad that I’d been my spontaneous self and asked her to dance.

I sat beside her.

“What is the most random thing you’ve ever done," I asked, "besides our dancing today?”

She sat thinking for a minute.

"I actually can't think of the most random thing I've done," she finally said. "But for some reason, I can think of the most embarrassing thing I've ever done ..."

"You mean besides you spilling tea all over you after bumping into me?" I asked.

"Oh you totally did not just go there," she said. "That was an accident. Besides, I spilt the tea on myself, not you."

"Relax, I was joking," I said. That was just to tease her a little.

"I knew that," she said confused.

"Did you now?" I asked.

"Okay Louis, that's enough," she said, "stop pulling my leg."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "My hands are right here." I put my hands up to show her, "I'm not even touching you."

She just shook her head at my antics but chuckled nonetheless.

Grinning that I'd gotten her to laugh again, because there was something about her laugh – it was quiet, and girly and breathy but so enchanting at the same time – I got up and nodded towards the street. Getting the hint, she got up as well and the two of us passed the busker on our way out. He tipped his hat in our direction gratefully. The two of us nodded at him before walking out and catching a cab.

“Where am I dropping you off?” I asked her once we'd seated ourselves.

“To Cher’s,” she said. “Don’t worry about the directions I’ll take care of it.”

She gave the driver Cher’s address and sat back in her seat beside me. Her phone vibrated and again and again but she made no move to check it.

"So," I said.

"So," Nicole repeated, dragging the word just a second longer. She looked at me and grinned when she saw that I was already looking at her narrow-eyed.

"I know what you're trying to do," I said, "but that's not gonna make me forget."

"Forget what?" she asked.

"You haven't told me what the most embarrassing thing you've ever done is," I said simply.

"But I don't want to tell you," she said.

"That embarrassing?" She nodded. "I'll just ask Cher," I said, shrugging my shoulders as I did.

"Fine, Jesus, I'll tell you," she said, acting very annoyed with me.

She went on to retell the tale of her and her cousin and their parents this one time in Toronto and they'd all gone to the CN Tower. After a very quick trip in the lift to the observation deck, Nicole realized that she was deathly afraid of heights. She didn't want to step on the glass floor either, but Leah gave her a push and got her to go on it for just a fraction of a second before Nicole jumped back off. Then as they were waiting for another lift to go to a smaller, and higher observation deck, Nicole might've said "I think I've wet my pants" in a bid to not have to go to this other observation deck. Her ploy was not only unsuccessful but got her weird and dirty looks the entirety of their wait from fellow visitors.

I couldn't help but chuckle at her confession; and even though I couldn't see her face clearly in the dark of the taxi, I could tell she was blushing.

"I think I even got lost at a Wal-Mart if I remember correctly," she mumbled. "It was a crazy summer."

"Sure sounds like it," I said laughing.

Cher’s apartment wasn’t too far from the restaurant and we were there within ten minutes.

Nicole started getting out of the taxi but stopped and turned towards me and said,

“Come with me, she’ll love having company if she’s actually sick.”

"If she's actually sick?" I questioned.

"I have a feeling she isn't," she answered.

She was insistent on paying for the taxi, so I let her. We walked into the building, and took the lift to Cher’s third floor flat. I followed Nicole as she led the way to the door.

We heard lots of noise coming from the other side. Laughter mixed with yelling and cursing. The voices were very familiar.

Nicole raised at eye brow at all the noise. I started to knock on the door, but was stopped by Nicole. She took out her keychain and looked for a key, all very silently. She found the one she was looking for and slipped it into the lock and unlocked the door. The bolt made a slight noise but it probably went unnoticed to Cher and her “party” as the noise continued. Nicole turned the door handle with her left hand and used her right index finger to indicate to me that we were to be very quiet.

She opened the door soundlessly and walked in. I walked in behind her but she had stopped in the hallway and I walked into her. She almost fell over from the force but I caught her before she could fall and make noise. We rounded the wall separating us from the living room found ourselves in the midst of a – Twister game.

**Nicole’s POV**

The lads of One Direction, minus Louis who was standing beside me, were tangled up on a Twister mat and it seemed like an intense game.

“Right foot blue.” I heard Cher call out but I couldn’t see her.

The boys’ shuffled a bit to get their right foot on a blue circle and Niall went down.

“No!” He looked kinda pissed about it since the other boys laughed at him and Louis was trying his best to not laugh out loud. Niall turned to get up and saw me and Louis standing at the entrance of the room. Harry, Liam and Zayn had also seen us and couldn’t help but grin. Cher poked her head up from the couch that she was sitting or rather lying on, since the rest of her body was hidden from me.

The lads had stood up from their awkward positions on the mat and stood their looking at us like all hell was about to break loose.

“Vas Happenin’?” Zayn asked us to enlighten the mood I guess.

I looked at Louis and we burst into laughter which earned us weird looks from the four lads and Cher.

When we finally stopped laughing, I said,

“You guys look so scared like we’re going to come after you or something.”

“So, you’re not mad at us,” Niall asked, scratching his head.

“No, we had a lot of fun actually,” Louis answered nudging me. This only caused my smile to get bigger.

I saw Niall and Cher high five each other. I just shook my head.

“So, who’s not playing the next game?” I asked.

Liam and Zayn yelled out “me” at the same time.

I unbuttoned my coat and hung it up in the coat closet at the entrance and dumped my bag on the sofa before facing Harry, Niall and Louis on the mat for what was about to be the most intense game of Twister ever. The four of us had our game faces on and Liam, Cher and Zayn were going to take turns calling out body parts and colours.

“Right foot red,” Cher called out. All of us placed our right foot on a red circle. Louis and Niall used their free hands to playfully hit each other to get the other to fall even before the game took an extreme turn.

“Left hand blue,” Liam called out and we all bent ourselves and placed our left hand on a blue circle.  _Great, my butt’s sticking up now._

Harry, who was across from me on the mat, flashed me a cheeky grin and winked at Louis who was beside him.  _Oh God._  Louis smiled but tried to slap Harry with his right hand and almost toppled over.

As the game went on, we got tangled up and Louis was the first to fall. Judging by his face he was not happy with being the first one down but he silently took a seat beside Zayn.

Niall went down next and it was between me and Harry. I gave him my best game face and on went the game.

Soon, I found myself in a compromising position with Harry and our faces were inches from each other. He gave me another one of his cheeky grins and wiggled his eyebrows at me.

He took advantage of the position and blew his breath on my face. It tickled me and not really having any place to turn – I fell, but pulled Harry down with me as his arm was interwoven with mine.

“Ow!” he yelled out.

“Ow? You got the soft landing,” I said smacking his arm.

"I think you broke my arm," he said. He felt around the whole arm to make sure nothing hurt.

"I think you broke me," I said in return.

Niall couldn't stop laughing at the comment, and had the other boys in stitches as well.

Harry was the winner of the Twister game and he wouldn’t stop gloating about it.

Niall found Cher’s DDR game disk and insisted on playing it. Cher and Niall played first and Cher lost terribly. Harry and Niall went head to head after and Niall ended the game in victory. Zayn said he wasn’t even going to bother, well aware of his dancing skills. Louis took on Niall, and Louis came out victorious. Last but not least, it was me against Louis and I wasn’t going to play easy on him.

The song started and it was very fast paced. Having played DDR millions of times before, I was decent; at least I thought I was.

I concentrated entirely on the song and the beat. I asked Cher what the score while trying not to look away from the screen. She said we were very close but I was winning. I didn’t take the chance to loosen up, since the game could go in any direction from here. The boys were cheering on Louis, and that just motivated me more to win the round. At the end of the three gruesome minutes of the song, I collapsed into the nearest chair.

A chorus of "aww" went around but Niall came bounding at me, and held up my hand declaring me the winner. I felt like I had just won a wrestling match.

I tried to stifle a yawn but failed miserably. Louis was the first to notice and said that they should get going.

“Why don’t you just sleepover?” Cher asked “It’s kinda late to go home, don’t you think?”

“I don’t mind,” Niall piped up causing the other lads to fall into fits of laughter and causing a smile to form on my face.

“Of course you don’t mate.” Zayn smacked his friend’s back and he tried to hold his laugh. Niall just shrugged.

Cher and I pulled out the spare mattresses from her small storage closet. The boys seemed to have claimed their resting spots for the night as Niall was sitting on the recliner, Liam was getting comfortable on one of the couches and Zayn was doing the same on the other couch. Harry and Louis were standing waiting for Cher and I to bring the mattresses, which they took out of our hands as soon as we reached them. Cher went and got extra blankets that she kept in case her uni friends stayed over the night and passed them out to the lads.

I went into the bathroom to remove the makeup from my face and change into a spare pair of pajamas that I kept at Cher’s just in case. We said our goodnight's to the boys, and turned the lights out. I was asleep before I even hit the pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is more than welcome :) Thanks for reading. xx


	9. Chapter 9

**Nicole’s POV**

I woke up to the sun shining through the window and a big smile on my face as I recalled the events from last night. Cher was sprawled over the bed, still fast asleep. Stretching my hands over my head, I slipped from under the covers and made my way to the bathroom.

 

[...]

 

I was in the kitchen trying to figure out what the boys would want for breakfast, when a groggily voiced Louis came by the kitchen.

“Good morning.” He ran a hand through his bed hair, ruining it further.

“Morning,” I replied to his greeting, “is everyone still sleeping?” I asked.

“Yes, they’re still passed out,” he replied with a laugh.

“So why are you up so early?” I asked, looking through the cupboards to find the ingredients to make pancakes.

“I could ask you the same question.” Louis said with a smirk.

“I can never sleep in; it’s like I have an internal alarm clock that never lets me,” I said with a laugh.

“Same,” he simply said.

_Well, I guess I do have something in common with you then._

“Um, well, I’ve put out extra toothbrushes in the bathroom. Go freshen up and you can help me make pancakes.” I smiled at him. He left quietly.

Looking for all the ingredients to make a pancake batter was more work that I thought it would be. Cher’s kitchen was so disorganized it was becoming a pain to go through every cupboard to see if I would find the ingredients in this one. It took me about five minutes to find everything I needed, five minutes being too long to just find ingredients.

Louis walked back in just as soon as I had found everything that I needed and I was looking through Cher’s refrigerator for fruits to garnish the pancakes with. He took a seat at the dining table and tapped away on his phone before putting it face-down on the table and turning to me with a smile on his face.

“Do you need help with anything?”

“Yeah, actually you can make the tea, since I don’t trust you with this,” I said holding up a knife.

“I am perfectly capable of handling a knife. Did you not see my chopping skills on _This Morning_?”

“Was that before or after the shows’ host felt your arse?” I wondered out loud.

“Is someone jealous?” he wiggled his eyebrows at me.

I scoffed in response, mumbled a ‘you wish’ and went back to cutting the fruits. Of course I was jealous. I’m not the only one though. Every Directioner out there in the entire world was jealous of that lady. She felt Louis freaking Tomlinson’s arse, on national TV no less. And she got away with it.

“It’s alright if you’re jealous.” The voice and closeness was so sudden that the knife almost slipped from my hands and cut one of my fingers. I was so busy cutting the fruits that I hadn’t noticed Louis walk behind me.

“Just make the tea Louis,” I held up the knife trying to be serious but fighting a smile at the same time.

“You wouldn’t dare.” It was like he was challenging me to do something with it.

“Oh, you clearly don’t know me,” I laughed folding my hands across my chest, being careful of the knife. I tried my hardest to look menacing though I knew I was failing miserably.

“And what are you planning to do with that?” He raised an eyebrow in the direction of the knife I was still holding.

“I will,” I thought about what I could say and got an idea, “... I will chop off that index finger of yours, the one that you love to point up in the air for some reason when you’re drunk.” I finished feeling victorious only to be let down.

“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” Louis started saying very thoughtfully, “no one would be able to tell that I might’ve had a little too much to drink.” He whooped in victory as my mouth fell.

“Oi, quit with the loud banter this early in the morning. People are tryna sleep.” An authoritative voice sounded across the kitchen.

“Sorry Liam,” I apologized. I saw him stood in the doorway, sleep masking his features.

“What are you guys doing up so early anyway?” he asked.

“Just making pancakes,” Louis answered.

“Did someone say pancakes?” I heard Niall come in behind Liam and stand in the kitchen doorway beside him. Boy did he look wide awake at the mere mention of food.

“Yes Niall, pancakes. Go wash that drool off your face and you can have some,” I said.

“Alright,” he said, turning to go back but then he realized what I said. “Hey!”

“I was just joking," I said laughing, "go wash up and I’ll have some pancakes ready for you.”

[...]

20 minutes later, Louis, Niall, Liam, Cher and I, were sitting eating breakfast like we were old friends.

After I sent Niall to wash up, a very angry Cher walked into the kitchen mumbling about how Niall woke her up by pouncing on her. Louis just smiled and shook his head while I wholeheartedly laughed at her. She continued to pout before letting her lips form a smile at the memory.

Harry and Zayn were still fast asleep, so we let them keep sleeping.

“So,” Liam began, “this is what, our second sleepover together since we met?” he asked thoughtfully.

“Yeah, two within a month, wow,” Niall said without taking his eyes from his Blackberry as he typed away on it.

“And these two,” Liam pointed to me and Louis, “have been out to dinner.”

“And danced in public,” Niall added looking at his phone, eyebrow raised at his small screen.

“What?” Cher and Liam exclaimed at the same time causing me to blush and look away while Louis just shrugged.

“It was a spur of the moment kind of thing and I didn’t expect people to record it or anything,” he said defensively.

“Let me see,” Liam asked to see Niall’s phone.

“You’re on Sugarscape,” Liam noted. _Trust, Sugarscape to get everything on the lads. This was not going to be good._

“No way!” Cher exclaimed.

“Yes way, look.” Liam shoved the phone into Cher’s outstretched hand.

“OH MY GOD. YOU’RE ON SUGARSCAPE. OH MY GOSH.” She stared wide-eyed at the screen, her finger scrolling the trackpad.

“There’s a video,” she stated and pressed play. The sound of clapping and the tune of Dance With Me Tonight started playing from the small speakers.

“Aw,” she stretched the word more than necessary, “you look so cute!”

“I know I do,” Louis said with a cheeky grin and took the phone from Cher’s hand and paused the video before scrolling through the article himself.

“I was watching that,” she yelled at him and proceeded to slap him on the arm.

“Will you keep it down? I’m trying to sleep.” A shirtless Harry stood in the doorway of the kitchen.

“You’ll be wide awake when you see this.” Niall stole the phone from Louis and handed it to Harry who was confused about what to do with it.

“What am I supposed to be looking at?” he asked.

“Read the article and watch the video at the end,” Niall stated, as if it as obvious.

Everyone fell silent as Harry scrolled through the article, eyes widening with every word. He grinned as the guitar version of Olly’s song with Louis’ singing started playing once again through the tiny speakers.

“Aw, you two are so cute together.” Harry was still watching the video.

To occupy my mind, I started clearing the dishes that littered the table. I could feel four sets of eyes following my every move but I ignored them all, knowing the reason they were looking at me with such interest was because of what was happening. Something so small was now suddenly such a big deal as Directioners across the world were most likely reading the article and reacting. Good or bad, I don’t know but Louis didn’t seem too bothered by it.

I stood at the sink, looking through the window right above it, admiring the snow that had fallen overnight and covered the streets of London. Winter is my favourite season; the main reason would be snow. I don’t particularly like wearing coats and scarves and being bundled up to keep warm, but I just love the snow. It’s so peaceful and every snow flake is different, like people in a way.

“So, what’s for breakfast?” Harry asked, not saying anything more on the article or the video.

“Pancakes,” I let him know as I turned to face him. I was so sure that Harry would’ve wanted to say something about the whole ordeal, anything at all, but he asked what’s for breakfast.

The mobile nor Niall or Liam were present in the kitchen anymore. Cher and Louis were just making their way out of the kitchen. This confused me even more; I hadn’t even heard their chairs scraping along the hardwood flooring as they moved to get up and leave.

“Nicole, relax,” Harry told me.

“I am relaxed.” The confusion was slowly being replaced by annoyance.

“No you’re not,” he simply stated. “You’re scared, scared of what the Directioners are going to think of you after watching the video; you’re scared of all the possible hate you might receive after that. Deny it all you want Nicole, but I can see it on your face, even if the others don’t.”

I poured myself another cup of tea, turning to the counter as I did, to avoid from looking at his face. 

“No I’m not Harry.” I denied it but the words sounded phony on my tongue. I was blatantly lying when I knew exactly how I felt about the situation. Scared would be an understatement. I was horrified. I wasn’t worried about the hate I would be getting, already having experience with that, I was more worried about what people are going to think of the video; making such a big deal out of something so small. It was only a dance. Two friends dancing in the moonlight ... _oh God this was bad. I’d dug my own grave and the Directioners were going to bury me in it._

Before Harry could say anything else, Niall poked his head through the doorway and asked us to come with him. He handed me a camera, Cher’s digital camera to be specific, and asked me to record the events of the next few minutes. While I quickly adjusted the settings on the camera to suit the indoor environment and lighting, the lads grabbed and pulled their gloves on and opened the balcony door. I started the recording as they started making snowballs from snow from the balcony. They sniggered evilly as they did so, whispering how they would get Zayn so bad. Cher was standing beside me watching the entire scene take place.

“Aren’t you going to help them in their task?” I asked her knowing she loves a good joke.

“Nah,” she replied. “I’d rather not be dead at this young an age,” she said seriously.

“I can’t believe that Liam’s joining in,” I said.

“I like to have fun sometimes,” I heard Liam speak up. _Oops, too loud._

Niall spoke a few obscenities when his snowball kept breaking.

“The snows’ too soft,” he said. Feeling defeated, he shook all the snow from his gloves before standing beside Cher. Harry, Louis and Liam attempted to make a snowball a few more times before Louis had had enough. He cupped his hands together and scooped up the snow, Liam and Harry mimicking his action before making their way to the sofa that Zayn was laying on. I followed the three of them, keeping my promise to record their every move. They left the balcony door open so that the snow wouldn’t melt from the heating but this caused the cool wind to blow across the room causing Cher and I to shiver uncontrollably. We huddled together to keep warm as the lads decided what they would do. I kept the camera trained on the three the entire time.

“Oh Zayn! Wake up!” Louis said in a high pitched singsong voice that made me want to laugh out loud but I kept it together because I knew that if I laughed, Cher, who was standing beside, trying her hardest not to laugh would burst out laughing too.

“We got breakfast from McDonald's,” Liam started.

“Or any other brand,” Louis sang next, reminding me of the song from the documentary that Directioners have dubbed the ‘Time to Get Up’ song or their alarm.

“We drove two miles to get it,” Harry added getting the hint.

“So you better get up and eat it,” Niall sang further, joining the three in their attempt to wake Zayn up.

As they decided on the next lines of the song, just like from the documentary, it ended up being a jumble of four voices, not one word making sense as four completely different lines came together in a chorus type verse.

The boys looked like four adorable monkeys trying their hardest to be silly and wake Zayn up. I saw Zayn quickly open one eye to see what the banter was for before closing it and pretending to be asleep. I pointed it out to Cher and she stifled a giggle as the three boys who were still holding the snow decided it would be the best time to drop it on the poor Zayn. They hadn’t noticed that Zayn had indeed woken up when they caused so much noise and just as on the count of three, Harry, Liam and Louis dropped the snow, Zayn rolled over and the snow landed on the sofa.

“It’s time to wake up,” Zayn yelled as he fell onto the floor.

He laughed his heart out in victory at their failed attempt, clutching his stomach. Louis pouted in defeat, hands crossed across his chest making him look like a five year old that had been denied a chocolate chip cookie.

Cher ruffled Louis’ hair playfully and laughed at him. He pouted even more.

“Look, on the bright side,” she said, “Nicole’s got the whole thing recorded. You can look at it 50 years from now and laugh at the good times.”

“Whoa,” Zayn spoke up, “You recorded this?” Whether he was surprised or amused at this, I couldn’t tell.

“Sadly,” Louis said. “You,” he shook his finger at me and looked at me threateningly, “better not let anyone else see this.” He held out his little finger for me. I entwined my pinky around his and promised to not let his little fail leak to the outside world.

“You’re such kids,” Zayn said shaking his head at our childishness before getting up from the floor.

“We’re going to have to go lads.” Liam came through the kitchen doorway holding his phone in his hand. “Paul’s called us down for something to do with our tour.”

“Right now?" Zayn asked. "It’s only nine in the morning. And it’s Saturday. What if everyone was sleeping still?” Zayn whined.

“But everyone isn’t,” Liam pointed out.

“I haven’t even had breakfast,” he said annoyed.

“Neither have I,” Harry chimed in.

“We’ll grab something for the two of you on the way there. Now come on, get dressed.” Liam shooed Zayn into the bathroom.

Within ten minutes, they’d all cleaned up and got dressed. They put on their coats and left me and Cher in a quiet and empty flat.


	10. Chapter 10

**Nicole's POV**

“What?” I was seriously confused. _Did they just ask me to go on tour with them?_

“Oh my God, this is bloody amazing!” Cher exclaimed while I mulled over what had just been offered to me.

“So is that a yes?” Niall asked.

“Yes.” “No.” Cher and I said at the same time.

“Yes?” Liam inquired.

“No,” I said and again at the same time Cher said yes. I looked at her and glared, effectively shutting her up for a few minutes.

“No. I’m not doing this,” I said firmly. It was one thing to just hang out with One Direction as friends but entirely different when they asked me for this!

“Are you sure?” Louis asked as he looked at me, and I turned from facing Liam to Louis to come directly in view with his bright blue eyes.

“Yes,” I answered without faltering in my decision.

“So it’s a yes then?” Harry asked, a mischievous smile playing on his lips.

“No. That is not a yes. Stop trying to confuse me and making me say yes.” Harry just smiled his stupid smile at me. I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Why not though?” Niall asked.

“It’ll be fun,” Zayn added.

“Because,” I said to answer Niall before turning to Zayn. “Yeah, fun for the Directioners to have yet another reason to hate me and plot my death.”

“Is that why you’re saying no?” Louis asked, his gaze fixed on me as he waited for an answer.

“No,” I said, hesitating a little. In return, I got six pairs of eyes staring at me, so I looked to the ground. Cher, I knew would have her eyebrows raised in such a way as to clearly say ‘really?’

I heard a scoff and I looked up at the sound.

“That’s exactly the reason she’s saying no,” Harry said, looking right at me as if challenging me to say something in return. I stayed quiet.

“Aw, come on, the fans are just a little jealous. They’ll get over it soon.” That was Niall. I had to stop the urge to roll my eyes at that.

“But why me?” I asked instead of responding to either lad.

“Why you what?” Liam asked.

“Why do you want me as the photographer? You can hire the world’s best photographer at the snap of your fingers. Why do you want me?” It was a valid question especially because I’m just a fan who’s interested in photography, nature photography at that, and concerts aren’t classified as nature.

“Well, we did have a photographer,” Harry revealed, “but he had a family emergency come up and had to pull out.”

“The first concert's about a week away though. Can’t he make it back by then?”

“He said he’d try but management just let him off because it's a family emergency and who knows how long that could take to sort out.”

“So I’m the backup then?”

“Pretty much,” Louis said.

“You were the first person that we thought of as a possible person for the job and with the holidays coming up; most others already have plans or are booked for other things. We thought you’d be perfect for this.” Zayn was assuring but there was no way I would be doing this. Not even for One Direction.

“That’s really flattering ...” I said.

“But?” Louis waited for me to continue.

“But I dunno,” I sighed.

“Please,” they all said together.

Funnily, Cher hadn’t spoken a word since I glared at her. I looked towards where she was sitting to make sure she was still there. She mouthed ‘do it’ and I shook my head lightly in response to her. But I also couldn’t just say no to them, so I said the next best thing,

“I’ll think about it.”

Cher beamed at me and I knew that I had gotten myself in a situation that I would probably never get out of alive.

 

[...]

 

I stood outside the entrance of the bus, contemplating whether or not I should enter. _There's no way out of this now. It's too late._

I sighed in defeat and made my move to climb the stairs.

We’d been standing outside the bus for over ten minutes now and Cher was getting antsy. As I heard her mutter “finally,” I stopped in my track.

“It’s freezing out here,” she exclaimed, “Will you get your bloody arse up those steps already?”

I slowly turned around to face my best friend, “if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be standing here in the first place.” I had practically just snapped at her but she didn’t seem upset.

“But isn’t this what you’ve always wanted to do?” she questioned instead.

“No,” I replied. “Concerts are not nature and they’re too dark ... and loud.”

Hell, if I had tickets to One Direction’s concerts I wouldn’t have been complaining like that. But it was true, I was planning on doing nature photography not people photography.

Maybe giving Cher another reason would get me out of here,

“Plus I don’t want to do this with everything that’s probably gunna happen because of it.”

“Aw, Coco!” She threw her arms around me, a bit dramatically, and hugged me tight even though it was a becoming a bit uncomfortable. “Don’t worry about them,” she said as I hugged her back. “They’re just jealous.”

She finally let go of me and I couldn’t help but want to roll my eyes at her statement. She was the second person to tell me that. Fourth if I counted my parents. Third, since the only parent that had really said those words to me, was my mum.

“That’s easy for you to say,” I began, “you’re not the most wanted person on the list of millions of girls.” Cher was reading a text that she had gotten and looked up to face me. She began to open her mouth to say something but I beat her to it. “Besides, whose idea was this? It’s ridiculous.”

Cher chuckled at my ‘silliness’ as she calls it every time I decide to whine about having to go on this ‘trip’ as she put it, or as she would much rather call it, ‘the opportunity of a lifetime’.

“I know babe,” she walked in front of me but pulled me behind her. “But come on, we’ve kept them waiting long enough. They’re wondering where we are,” she said waving her phone around.

I let myself be pulled up the stairs because as I said before, there was absolutely no way out of this now.

“Look who has decided to finally show up,” Harry said, as he first hugged Cher and then me. “We were about to leave without you,” he said.

“Oh the horror of doing that,” I pretended to be shocked and gasped for added effect. Harry merely chuckled and Cher rolled her eyes.

“That would’ve been most welcome in her books though,” she said then proceeded to tell him how much of a pain I was being just moments ago. Some best friend she is.

“We’re not even going with you though,” I said causing Harry to do a double take. “I’m driving.” I shook my keys in front of his face. But before he could say anything, Liam walked towards me.

“Really glad you could make it,” Liam smiled at me before enveloping me in a hug. “Sorry to take you away from any plans you might’ve had so suddenly. I have no idea what Louis was thinking when he suggested –”

“Wait, are you saying that this was Louis’ idea?” I asked, utterly confused. Liam nodded.

Didn’t Zayn say that they had collectively thought of me as the first person to be a replacement? Maybe I just assumed that. Liam opened his mouth to speak again but Louis walked down the little hallway and came and stood beside him, a little smile playing on his lips as he welcomed me aboard.

“Getting me into more trouble with the fans Mr. Tomlinson?” I asked eyes narrowed but tone playful.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about Ms. Russo.” He played along as he hugged Cher.

“Is that so?” I tried to be irritated with him but that was hard to do when he was smiling his oh-so-gorgeous smile.

“Aw come on Nics, do you really not want to be here?” he asked. “And where’s my hug?” he questioned right after. He started closing the space between us but I put my hand in front of me, stopping him.

“One,” I began, “do not ever call me Nics.” I scrunched my nose in disgust as I said the absurd nickname. “And two, you don’t get a hug.”

“Why?” he whined. “And what’s wrong with Nics?”

“You can call her Coco.” I didn’t even stop to think before I face palmed myself as I heard Cher say those words.

"I'd much rather you call me Nics then Coco," I said to Louis. He beamed before I added, "But only if I get to call you Boobear."

He shook his head, but said, "sure."

Knowing that he found the nickname extremely embarrassing, it was actually quite the shock that he was okay with me calling him that. "Really?" I asked him.

"Only if I get a hug," he said smiling, as he placed his condition.

"Aw," I said, "come here Boobear." I held my arms out and Louis went a little pink as Harry, Liam, and Cher quietly snickered. But he hugged me nonetheless.

He smelled like lavender and citrus and some kind of wood. The smell wasn't overly strong on the senses like most men colognes but it was spicy and overwhelming at the same time. I almost wished to just stand there hugging him all day but the hug had to end before it got too awkward.

"That wasn't so hard now was it Nics?" he asked smiling triumphantly as we pulled away from each other.

“Where’s Paul?” I chose to ask ignoring what Louis had just said. I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks however.

“He’s out with Niall, should be back any minute actually,” Liam answered.

“So are you excited?” Harry asked, looking to Cher and me.

“I am!” Cher squealed. I saw Harry wince slightly and had to stifle a laugh.

“Is she like this always?” Zayn asked emerging from the back room.

“Pretty much,” I replied solemnly as he hugged me.

“Hey!” Cher protested, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Let’s just say love, that you’re a bit …” Louis trailed off here.

“ _Loco_ ,” Liam added with a grin.

“Oh my God,” Cher said shaking her head, “Why am I even here?” she asked in the most dramatic way possible.

“Yeah Cher, why are you even here?” Niall asked as he came onto the bus holding a Subway bag. He came and stood beside me, I high-fived him.

“I see how it is then, it seems like it's ‘gang up on Cher and make her feel unwelcome and unwanted’ day,” Cher said, folding her arms in front of her and making the most pathetic pouty face. The lads just snickered at her antics.

“Aw Cher Bear!” I said nudging her shoulder and ruffling some of her hair. “We were just joking, or at least I was, not sure about them.”

“We were just joking too,” Louis added defensively but continued laughing.

“Hey Niall, where’s Paul? I need to get something from him,” I asked him once the laughter had stopped.

“He should be outside. If not, check one of the buses, he’ll be there,” Niall answered as he dug into his Subway bag. It was only approaching ten and Niall was already having pre-lunch. That sub smelled like Heaven though. I couldn’t blame him for practically drooling over it.

“Alright, then I’ll see everyone later,” I said giving everyone a wave before making my way out the bus. I stood just a few feet from the other buses but I wasn’t sure which bus Paul could be in. I was silently playing the odds of which to go in first, when a voice behind me caused me to jump.

“What are you doing?” Cher had managed to come up behind me without me noticing.

“Oh my God, you just about gave me a heart attack!” I yelled at her before giving her a shove.

“Why are you so jumpy?” she asked me confused, “Or were you expecting it to be someone else?” she raised her eyebrows and I couldn’t help but gasp at her implications.

“Why are you following me?” I asked instead, changing the topic entirely.

“Just making sure you don’t run away,” she replied smugly.

Whatever was it with her and thinking that I was going to bolt from here the first chance I got. The lads were depending on me and now that I was here, I wasn’t just going to leave. So I ignored her and decided that the second of the two buses was probably a place to start a search for Paul. Not sure why, just an intuition I guess. I should’ve gotten his mobile number when I had the chance. But now wasn’t the time to count my mistakes so I walked in the direction of the second bus, Cher following behind me. Finding Paul on that bus wasn’t hard at all, there were a ton of young people surrounding him as he gave them the run-through for the first night. This would obviously become their routine for the next two months. He broke away from the crowd as he spotted me and Cher waiting for him near the front.

“You must be Nicole,” he said approaching me. He shook my hand before turning to Cher.

“And you are?” he questioned her. I couldn’t help but laugh at that. Today was truly turning out to be Cher’s worst day. Paul laughed with me before facing her crestfallen face, “I was just joking, welcome aboard,” he said before shaking her hand as well.

I quickly got the address for the hotel in Wolverhampton and his mobile number just in case anything happened and then exited the bus, Cher walking in front of me. She halted suddenly causing me to bump into her.

“What’s with everyone and pulling my leg today?” she asked turning around to face me.

“Stop being so dramatic,” I said before pushing her to keep walking.

“You know,” I began as we reached my car, “you’re more than welcome to bus it with the lads if you’d like.”

She laughed at that. “Yeah, so you can skip Wolverhampton and just head to Scarborough? Not happening.”

We got into the red Mini, and Cher turned on the radio before I had even pulled out from the parking space. Before long, we were on the road to Wolverhampton.


	11. Chapter 11

**Louis’ POV**

Liam got a frantic call from Cher just a few minutes after we’d all made it back to the green room after the quick sound check.

“Calm down Cher and give your phone to the guard,” Liam spoke into his phone.

He quickly explained over the phone – who he was and that Nicole and Cher were really with us. The other three lads and I had no idea what was going on. Were the girls in some sort of trouble? When he got an answer from the other end, Liam was not happy. He ran out of the room, saying a quick "I'll be right back".

The four of us remaining in the room just looked at each other.

“It sounds like they’ve managed to get themselves in trouble,” Niall said, as he opened a can of Coke.

“Maybe they just got lost in the hallways,” Zayn added as a thought, before leaving the room; for a smoke no doubt.

“Maybe, security thinks that they’re fans that got in and now they’re getting kicked out,” I wondered. Liam had told Cher to give her phone to a guard. It made sense.

“I doubt that,” Harry said. “I don’t think Nicole would actually let anything like that happen.”

Harry was correct too. It didn’t sound like something Nicole would ever let happen.

Liam came back five minutes later, holding Lux.

“Harry,” he said as he walked in, “Lou said that she’ll do your hair now.”

Harry quietly left the room and Liam came and sat down beside me with Lux.

“So what happened with Nicole and Cher?” I asked, tickling Lux’s face. She responded by slightly squirming in Liam’s arms.

He explained the situation and I realized that I’d guessed spot on.

“I shoulda bet on that,” I said causing Niall to laugh.

“Bet on what?” I heard Cher ask from my right. I leaned forward to see Cher and Nicole entering the room. Niall gave me a look that basically said ‘you’re in trouble now’ but I proceeded to answer Cher’s question.

“How I was right that you’d gotten in trouble with security and they were gunna kick you out,” I said as-a-matter-of-fact. I grinned when Cher just stuck her tongue out at me. Nicole came in quietly behind her and sat down beside Niall.

“Are you okay?” Liam asked her.

She laughed and nodded her head. “That was crazy,” she said, “we should never do that again.”

“For a second, I was thinking that maybe they might throw us into the crowd and we’d be crushed by angry teenagers,” Cher said, “but thank you Liam for saving our arses.”

“Yes, thank you,” Nicole said as well, shooting Liam a grateful smile. Her cheeks were pink, in embarrassment or what, I wasn’t sure. Unexpectedly, she gasped.

“Whose baby is that?” she asked. “She’s adorable.”

“This is Lou’s daughter,” Liam said.

Nicole looked at me, “I didn’t know you had a baby,” she said with some shock.

I had the strongest urge to laugh at that – Lux, my daughter? What was she thinking? I opened my mouth to tell her that she had it wrong but she beat me to it.

“I know she’s not yours, I was just kidding,” she said with a small laugh. “Lou is – is … the –”

“—the hair stylist,” Cher finished for her.

“I was getting there,” Nicole said, playfully shoving Cher on the arm.

“And make-up artist,” Niall added, “She works wonders.”

“That she does.” I couldn’t help but agree with him.

Liam’s phone rang again and after looking at the caller id, he handed Lux over to me and left the room. I adjusted her position in my hands to be more comfortable. Lux was a very quiet and happy baby, most of the time. But in this moment, she started crying – hard.

Having had younger sisters to take care of, I thought that I could get her crying to stop – or at least under control. I tried rocking her, talking to her, rubbing her back but she kept on crying. I didn’t know what was wrong.

I looked up when a shadow fell on me and I saw Cher standing in front of me. She asked for Lux, and I gave her up. Cher sat down beside me, as she held onto her and I noticed that she had quietened down a lot. I could hear Lux gasp for breathe as she continued to quieten down.

Cher called Nicole over and the two girls talked to Lux, like literally talked to her. They asked her what was wrong, why she was crying, if someone or something had upset her and other silly questions; and Lux stopped crying. It worked. They continued talking to her and making baby noises, which caused Lux to talk back (in her weird baby language).

“Aw, she’s smiling,” Cher noted and she handed Lux over to Nicole and she sat down on the other side of me.

“Baby whisperers,” Niall said.

“What can I say, I have a gift when it comes to babies,” Cher bragged a little, laughing as she did. Niall looked at her impressed.

“Oh, she likes my necklace,” Nicole said with a laugh. I could see Lux’s little hand clutching at something – Nicole’s necklace – and she seemed to be holding on tightly. Nicole tried to get Lux’s small fingers to loosen their grip but she was unsuccessful. Instead she turned around, her back facing me, before she asked,

“Can you open it for me?”

I saw movement from the corner of my eye as I pushed Nicole’s hair to the side. It was soft to the touch but silky at the same time and so it easily moved out of the way. I noticed the writing at the bottom of her neck, her tattoo; it seemed like it was in Italian though so I didn’t know what it said.

I was struggling to open the clasp when the sound of a shutter flashing went off. I looked to Niall who was holding Nicole’s camera and Cher who had gotten up from beside me and was now sitting beside Niall, pointing something out on the camera. The camera flashed again, blinding me for a moment.

The two of them continued to whisper and point things as I finally got the necklace to open. Niall had the camera pointed on Nicole, Lux and me.

“Why is the picture so dark?” Cher asked.

“Wrong lens for the lighting,” Nicole answered as she carefully tied the necklace around Lux’s neck. “Try the smallest lens.”

Cher rummaged through her camera bag to find the smallest lens and proceeded to change it when she did. She was clearly struggling with it though.

“Good God, you’re going to ruin my lens,” Nicole said from beside me. She didn’t sound even the least bit angry or annoyed. A few seconds after letting Cher try to change the lens, she gave Lux to me, who was happily playing with her necklace, and went to Cher. She sat down beside her and showed her how to change the lens.

“What would I ever do without you?” Cher asked her.

“I honestly don’t know,” Nicole said seriously.

“Is that supposed to mean something?” Cher asked.

“No, not at all,” Nicole avoided looking Cher’s glare and instead looked at the floor. When a moment later she looked up again, our eyes met and she gave me a small smile.

“I don’t like this lens,” Cher complained as she tried taking pictures of Niall, though he was trying his best to hide.

“It’s not my favourite either,” Nicole said holding her hand out. Cher placed the camera in it and she looked through the viewfinder, the camera pointed at me and Lux. She didn’t click a picture right then but instead said,

“Hold that pose,” as she fiddled with the focus on the lens and then she snapped a photo. I was holding Lux upright, supported by my elbow so that she looked like she was sitting. She was still holding onto Nicole’s necklace.

“My people photos are improving,” I heard Nicole say. I looked up and saw that Cher and Niall were looking at the photo now.

“Daddy Tomlinson,” Cher said.

“See,” Nicole said, “I wasn’t wrong about joking that she was your daughter.”

“Is it cause we both have blue eyes?” I asked her.

Nicole thought about it for a moment, before shrugging and saying, “I guess so. – But then again, pretty people have pretty kids. Do the math.”

_Did she just call me pretty?_

“Well I think that Niall would be a better daddy match for Lux considering the blonde hair,” I argued.

Nicole and Cher both looked at Niall and then at Lux.

“I guess if we pretend Niall’s blonde hair is natural, sure,” Cher said.

Nicole craned her neck forward to look at Niall, “I sense a scandal here. Teen dad. Who’s the mum?”

She said this in a very dramatic voice causing everyone to laugh.

“That story, if it were real, would actually give someone a nice break into the field of journalism,” she said sitting back.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Cher asked Nicole.

“No I’m not,” Nicole answered not even looking at Cher’s face which had dropped open. “You know what, I’m extremely jealous of all four of you.”

“You’re so random,” Cher said, “and four?” Cher looked confused.

Nicole gave Cher a look. “Did you seriously forget to count baby Lux over there? … that is her name right, Lux?” She looked at me for an answer. I nodded.

“That’s such a pretty name,” Nicole said.

“Why are you jealous of the four of us?” Niall asked.

“’Cause you all have such pretty blue eyes and I’m the only loser in this room right now that has green eyes,” she answered.

“I think you have really pretty eyes,” I said. She gave me a smile.

“Thanks,” she said. “But I don’t even understand how I have green eyes.” She shook her head in denial at some answer or another she must’ve got to her own question. “My mum and dad both have blue eyes. Shouldn’t I have blue eyes?” she asked.

“Maybe you were adopted,” Cher said as she leaned forward to grab Nicole’s laptop off the table. Nicole shook her head and mumbled something that I couldn’t hear. Cher had heard her though because she quietly said something back.

Niall had long ago finished his can of Coke and was currently checking his phone. _Probably on Twitter._ He and Liam were always the ones to tweet the most.

Lux was still playing with the necklace. Like I said before, she was a relatively quiet baby; she did her own thing not making a big fuss all the time. Her big blue eyes looked at me, sparkling with innocence, which only made it that much more of a painful reminder that I would be turning 20 in less than three days.

The sound of laughter caused me to look up to find Nicole and Cher laughing at something. Nicole had buried her head onto Cher’s shoulder to keep from laughing out loud and both were shaking with silent laughter. [http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldxtm5aZ751qeymxoo1_500.gif]

By now, Niall had looked over too and seeing the two of laughing at something very apparent on the screen in front of them, he tried to get a peek. Nicole was quick to notice however and pressed a few keys, causing Niall to throw a sort of fit.

“Hey!” he said, “I want to see what you’re laughing at.”

The two girls only laughed harder.

“Put it away,” Nicole said as she gasped for breath, “so inappropriate.”

“What’s inappropriate?” Harry asked walking into the room.

Nicole snorted at the sight of Harry and immediately covered her mouth shut. Cher burst into another round of laughter. The two of them were quite the sight.

When they finally calmed down, they refused to give up any details on what they were laughing at and instead changed the topic to our recent performances.

“Absolutely flawless!” Cher exclaimed about The X Factor finale performance. “I never thought that anyone could mash up _She Makes Me Wanna_ and _What Makes You Beautiful_ and get that result.”

“Your echo of beautiful, Harry,” Nicole added, “unbelievable.”

“Nicole actually got into shit with her neighbour that night,” Cher dished.

“Yeah, um,” Nicole said, “he comes knocking on the door halfway through JLS’ part of the performance and he’s like ‘can you turn it down, I’m tryna study’ and I was like ‘yeah, give me two minutes, I swear I’ll turn it down’ and he just gave me this death glare. – The next thing I know is I heard the guitar play to _What Makes You Beautiful_ and I didn’t wait another second –”

“—she shut the door in his face,” Cher added.

“I bought him a Christmas present to make up for that,” Nicole said, “besides, that was all your fault,” she accused Cher.

“ _You_ were at the door, how’s that my fault?”

“He would never have knocked had you not been blasting the telly that loud,” Nicole argued.

The two continued to argue, English turning into Italian.

“Girls, girls,” I said over their two voices, and the two of them looked at me, “calm down.”

Each gave the other a glare and a cold shoulder but neither said another word. It was quite weird to see the two best friends like that and the room was suddenly so much quieter now that they weren’t talking.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Harry spoke up, “Lou wanted to do your hair now Louis.”

“And you’re telling me now!” I yelled at him, as I quickly handed Lux over to him, “she’s gunna be so mad at me.”

I rushed out of the room to find the room where Lou had set-up shop. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is Nicole's outfit for the chapter btw (not really described in the chapter) but if you wanna have a look: http://www.polyvore.com/chapter_11_outfit/set?id=66981982  
> Do let me know if you want to see more outfits and if you'd like to see them for Cher as well or not.  
> Feedback is lovely (: I appreciate your reading this!  
> Happy Holidays and Happy New Years! (in case I don't get back here to update on the day of). Next update should be soon and I have now caught up to posting all the chapters I had so yeah. xx  
> *insert some happy 1D gifs here* xD


	12. Chapter 12

**Louis’ POV**

The concert in Wolverhampton had gone beyond imagination. The warm-up show we’d done in Watford had helped us prepare for the shows to come but the Wolverhampton crowd was crazy and even louder than the Watford crowd.

We’d arrived in Manchester a half hour ago for the next three shows before Christmas and the boys and I had spent the drive here playing FIFA. I was now standing outside Nicole and Cher’s hotel room door, waiting for one of them to open it.

“Hey,” Nicole said as soon as she saw me.

“Hey,” I returned her greeting, “do you have any plans?”

She thought about it for a moment before answering,

“Well, I planned on curling up in bed, watching a film, why?”

“What about Cher?” I questioned her next.

“She’s out shopping,” Nicole answered, motioning for me to come in.

I entered and walked into the room, as Nicole shut the door.

The TV was on but on mute and her laptop was sitting open on her bed, the login screen on. I noticed a jumper thrown on the other bed. Nicole came and sat down in front of her laptop.

“Oh, I brought you this,” I said fishing her necklace from yesterday out of my pocket. I held it up for her to see.

“I completely forgot about that, thanks” she said as she took it from my hands and placed it on the bedside table, where there were already some candy cane shaped earrings lying.

“Are these edible?” I asked her picking one up.

She laughed. “You’re welcome to see for yourself.”

She pulled her feet up and logged into her laptop.

“You’re in quiet the festive mood today, aren’t you?” I asked her. When she looked at me weird, I pointed to her socks.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, “they’re not mine. Cher forced me into wearing them, just like she forced me to wear those earrings and that jumper,” she pointed to it on the other bed, covering her mouth with her free hand as she yawned at the same time. “—sorry. All to try to get me to be in the Christmas mood. In fact, she expects me to watch a Christmas film right now … not happening.”

“So what are you watching?” I asked her as I sat down beside her.

“I looked through all the channels on the telly to see if maybe there was anything good on but there isn’t so,” she paused as she turned to her laptop, “I dunno. How about _Up_?”

“That George Clooney film?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Isn’t that _Up In The Air_? I’m talking about the animated film. Haven’t you seen it?”

“I don’t think I have,” I answered. She gaped in return.

“I hope you don’t have anywhere to be,” she said, “I’m not letting you go anywhere until you’ve seen it.”

Lucky for me, I really didn’t have anywhere to be.

She quickly typed in a few things and pulled up a webpage.

“Isn’t that illegal?” I asked jokingly.

“Shhh,” she said bringing a finger up to her lips, though she was smiling, “I bought the film … I just don’t have it with me. Now watch.”

She started the film and sat back, pillows against the headboard. I mimicked her move and sat beside her, eager to watch the film.

The first ten minutes of it, quickly went from happy to sad. In the laughs and the quiet moments, I hadn’t noticed that Nicole had drifted to sleep until I felt a weight at my side and looked over to see.

That was half-hour into the film. I’d finished watching the film twenty minutes ago and she was still fast asleep.

Nicole had turned the TV off when she’d started the film and had left the remote on the other side of her. And since she was leaning on the shoulder that was closest to the remote, I had absolutely no way to get it to pass the time. So I was sat beside her playing Fruit Ninja on my phone.

Ten minutes of playing that, and she finally stirred. However, she made herself more comfortable by snuggling right up to me and didn’t wake up. I could smell the lavender – or was it lilac? I could never tell the difference between the two – coming from her hair; which looked wavier than usual today.

With nothing more to entertainment myself with, I thought it best to wake her up – at least we could talk, about something or another. Besides, we’d be leaving soon and she’d have to wake up anyway.

“Nicole,” I whispered, “come on now, get up.”

When she didn’t move, I slowly pulled my shoulder from under her, holding her up with my right hand. Once that happened without mishap, I gently shook her and she was quick to open her eyes.

She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, took in her surroundings as if she couldn’t remember where she was before she saw me. Her eyes widened in surprise, mouth slightly opened, and before she could say anything I said,

“There’s a little dribble on your chin.” I pointed to a spot on my own face and she mirrored my move.

She muttered something inaudible and her cheeks flushed red – yet again. There was something about her blushing that just made her look that much more beautiful.

“I was kidding,” I said as she rubbed at her chin.

“Oh my God,” she exclaimed, “I hate you.” She pushed me with such force that I almost fell over, as I laughed at her.

She shook her head at me. “How long was I out?” she asked once I’d stopped laughing.

“About thirty minutes since the film ended,” I answered.

Her eyes widened at the answer. “Cher’s not back yet, is she?” she asked, a little hesitant.

I shook my head. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“Okay,” she said, “I need you to do me a favour.” And without waiting for an answer from me, she went ahead with her request.

“I need you to just go along with what I say when she does get back,” she said, “please tell me you’ve seen _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_.”

“I have,” I answered, unsure of why I needed to have seen the film.

“Okay good.” She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and hopped off.

“Cher did call half an hour ago,” I said as I followed her movement to the other bed from where she picked up her other jumper and grabbed the candy cane earrings from the bedside table. “She said she’d be here about now and that she’s bringing food. Chinese I think she said.”

“Good, I’m hungry,” Nicole said as she disappeared down to the bathroom.

I turned on the telly and was absentmindedly flipping the channels. There was something different about Nicole today but I just couldn’t place my finger on it. It could be just that her hair looked wavier than usual or the fact that Nicole’s change in manner, though not drastic, was different to the Nicole I’d bumped into.

She was back in a few minutes with a change in attire. Now, she was wearing a festive jumper with ‘Ho! Ho! Ho!’ written down the front and the candy cane earrings she’d picked up. Her previous jumper had been a little scary. The eyes that were drawn in the front, from where the way we’d been sitting during the film, were always looking at me.

She stuffed that other jumper in her bag before taking a seat at the edge of the second bed.

“So how was the film?” she asked.

“It was _amazing_ ,” I answered, a little too excited for a kids animated film. “I can’t believe I hadn’t seen it before!”

“The best part of the film,” she paused.

“‘Kevin’s a girl?’” We ended up saying it together and we both laughed as we realized so.

“Did you notice that Ellie had green eyes?” I asked her when we’d calmed down. She shook her head, earrings swinging as she did. “And that Carl had blue eyes?”

“What are you trying to say?” she asked, confused.

“Just that you have green eyes and I have blue …” I said.

“And that you wear glasses sometimes like Carl does?” she asked, “now that you mention it, I see the resemblance,” she added thoughtfully.

“Are you saying I look like an old man?” I asked her, appalled.

“You’re implying that I’m going to die and then you’re going to fly our house and have yourself an adventure with some kid named Russell and you’re going to find a bird named Kevin, a talking dog named Dug and you’re going to get into loads of trouble without me,” she paused, “so yeah. Besides you started it.”

“Our house?” I asked her. “Aren’t you a little eager?” I teased, she blushed. “We’ve only been on one date.”

“That was not a date,” she argued.

“Oh come on now, don’t be like that,” I chaffed.

She shook her head as she said, “no, it wasn’t a date. That was a setup.”

“It was so a date,” I remarked. “Just admit it. You had fun.”

Her green eyes trained on me for two seconds before she gave a dramatic sigh, “okay fine, I had fun,” she admitted a smile breaking out of her face, “but that doesn’t make it a date.”

_Boy, was she persistent or what._

There was a knock at the door before I could say anything further. Nicole said she’d get it, so I stayed seated.

“Sleeping Beauty’s awake then is she?” I heard Cher say before I saw her. She was carrying about five different bags. She smiled in my direction in a greeting of sorts, as she placed the bags down.

“Good to see you too Cheryl,” Nicole said sarcastically as she came in behind Cher.

Cher rolled her eyes.

“What is with the two of you?” I asked not able to help myself, “you were fighting yesterday but back to normal when I saw you next and you’re fighting again today. You always get along.”

“See, that’s the problem here,” Cher said, “you’ve only seen us when we get along … we’re more fun when we don’t.”

“That’s not true,” Nicole counter argued her best friends statement. I couldn’t understand if Nicole was cranky from having been woken up or if she was honestly being herself today. She seemed so different in manner than always.

Cher ignored that bit before asking,

“So what’d you watch?”

“ _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_ ,” Nicole lied. _Oh, so that’s why she wanted to know if I’d seen the film or not._

“Oh, how appropriate,” Cher retorted.

This time Nicole rolled her eyes. Without saying anything, she made her way to the bags that Cher had put down just moments ago. She looked around in all the bags before finding the one she was looking for – the one with the food.

“Jackpot,” she muttered to herself when she found it. She brought over two containers and handed one to me. Seating herself to my left, just like earlier, she opened the other one for herself.

“How rude,” Cher noted. “Is this because I forced you into that jumper?”

Nicole didn’t say anything and instead started eating. Cher looked to me.

“She was complaining about that earlier,” I told her.

Cher gave Nicole a knowing look. “I did that for your own good,” she said.

Nicole continued to ignore her.

“You know,” Cher said to me, “every year she’s going crazy around this time of the year ‘cause Christmas is her favourite holiday and she tells me this morning that she’s not feeling festive this year … its weird not having her going crazy about Christmas like she always is. I’m just trying to get her in the mood. Is that so bad?”

“I guess not,” I answered honestly.

Nicole, who had been switching channels on the telly, stopped and turned to face me.

“Every year, Cher tells me that I’m absolutely _mental_ for having so much love for Christmas and every year she tells me to tone it down,” Nicole said, “and then when I tell her that this morning, she’s forcing me into a bloody Christmas jumper. Because somehow wearing a Christmas jumper is supposed to make me feel festive again.”

“I’m sorry,” Cher said, “I was just looking out for you.”

The two of them had a little stare-down. Cher looked apologetic and Nicole was just being stubborn, I noticed. And it was actually so awkward being sat physically in the middle of it all.

“Just promise me you won’t try to get me into the Christmas mood again,” Nicole said a few awkward silent moments later. Cher immediately promised and the two made up and were back to being the best of friends.

“So,” Cher began, sitting down on the other bed after grabbing a container for herself, “I feel like I interrupted a conversation when I came in, what were you talking about?”

“You can’t have known that we were even talking,” Nicole scoffed.

“No I don’t but you just confirmed that you were in fact talking about something,” Cher said.

“Hey!” Nicole protested. “Don’t go pulling the reverse psychology crap on me.”

“Then just tell me what you were talking about,” Cher said.

When Nicole didn’t say anything, I spoke up knowing that Cher would totally back me up.

“We were arguing about that dinner the two of us had and if it was a date or not,” I said, “I say it was and Nicole says it wasn’t.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Cher immediately said, “she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She hasn’t been on a date in two years.”

“As if you would know,” Nicole retorted, “when was the last time you went on a proper date?”

Cher thought about the answer.

“That’s what I thought,” Nicole said haughtily when she didn’t answer.

“Nics!” I exclaimed, “How very rude of you.”

I had been joking but she took it a little seriously, biting on her lips as she thought about what she had said.

“You’re right, that was kind of rude,” she said. “Oi,” she said calling Cher, “you’re not offended, are you babe?” she asked her.

Cher laughed but said, “No, of course not.”

“Okay good,” she said getting up and throwing her container in the rubbish bin before turning to face Cher and I again and asking, “can I change my jumper?”

“Why would you want to do that? You look lovely in this one,” Cher said. I agreed with her.

Nicole raised an eyebrow and Cher changed her tune. “Fine if you want,” she said. “And get out of the way, you’re blocking the telly.”

“Please don’t wear the one you were wearing before,” I said. Nicole who had already turned to her bag, turned back around to look at me wide-eyed.

“What do you mean the one she was wearing before?” Cher asked looking between me and Nicole. Nicole shook her head and stuffed the jumper back in her bag.

“Never mind the jumper,” Nicole intervened letting me off the hook from answering, “can I at least take these stupid earrings off?”

Cher shrugged and didn’t ask any more about what I had meant earlier. _That was close._

Nicole’s phone was vibrating on the bed sitting beside me and she was quick to grab it as she sat down cross-legged.

“Hello? … Keith!” she exclaimed, “this is so weird, you always text, never call,” there was a small pause here as she listened to the other end.

“Manchester,” she said, giving Cher a confused face. There was another pause.

“Uh …” she trailed as she looked at me this time, “how’d you know?”

There was a long pause here before she spoke again.

“You’re kidding me right? … Jesus, someone just kill me instead,” she said, throwing her head down – somewhat in defeat it seemed – her hair fell in front covering her face and she made no effort to push it aside as she picked on the covers on the bed with her perfectly painted red nails.

“It’s not a big deal … I promise … I’ll see you back at college … say hi to Annie for me … you too … bye.”

She looked up pushing her hair out of her face, as she ended the call. Her lips were set in a thin line but she let out a deep resigned sigh.

“They saw me,” she said.

“Who?” Cher asked.

“The fans,” Nicole said. “There are pictures of me getting out of my car doing rounds on the internet, they saw me here.”

When neither Cher nor I said anything, Nicole spoke up again.

“How is it that you managed to go out shopping for two hours and yet make it back in one piece? I don’t understand. If it were me, I’d be dead by now,” she said.

“That’s not true,” Cher countered, “you went and did all your Christmas shopping without any issues.”

I watched as Nicole took a pillow from beside me, threw it on her lap and put her face down on it for about 30 seconds.

“Silent screaming,” Cher said without me having to ask. The question must’ve been written on my face.

“I’m fine,” she said after she’d gotten up from it. “I’m fine,” she repeated.

She proceeded to say so about ten more times before she sighed – again.

“How many times do I have to say that to actually feel fine?” she asked Cher.

“You look absolutely wild,” I uttered. Her hair was all over the place now, and tangled in her earrings. What I had said was almost a whisper and I hadn’t meant for her to hear but Nicole seemed to have anyway.

“The other side, the other side, the other side of me,” she sang before bursting out laughing.

I widened my eyes at her. “What’s gotten into you today?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Nicole answered in all seriousness.

“She’s like this most days,” Cher assured me before mock scolding Nicole. “You’re scaring the poor lad Nicole, contain your craziness.”

But it just seemed so highly unlikely. Nicole had always been the quiet, serious and mature one; she can’t just be going mental like this all of a sudden. It was so out of character, one might say. She was quite chatty though, I noticed that yesterday.

“It’s like that saying ‘there’s two sides to every story’,” Nicole explained, “but there’s also two sides to every person.”

“And what might those be?” I asked her, interested to hear her answer.

“There’s the side that generally everyone sees and they think you always act like that,” she answered. “In my case, I am this naïve and mature nineteen year old –”

“—that is until you get to meet the real her,” Cher interrupted. “In reality she’s this mental and ‘off the walls’ nineteen year old,” she added.

“Which would be my ‘other side’, the one that I keep under wraps for obvious reasons,” Nicole said nonchalantly.

“Are you alright?” I asked her as I leaned forward and felt her forehead.

She gave a dramatic sigh at this. “I’m fine,” she answered. “It’s just that I’m running on four hours of sleep, you can’t blame me for being a little barmy.” She added a haphazard wave as she said so; it was all just so ridiculous.

“Four hours of sleep? What went on last night?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

Cher giggled at what I would assume was the face that I was making. Nicole shook her head.

“You mean after the two of us cried our eyes out at the concert and somehow made it to the tour bus without being seen by any fans?” she asked, “I painted my nails at one in the morning, watched an episode of _Grey’s Anatomy_ , played around on Photoshop, talked to Leah –”

 _Cry?_ That was all I had heard and could think about.

“—why would you be crying?” I asked before I realized something. “Is that why the two of you were so quiet on the drive back?”

“Pretty much,” Cher answered this time with Nicole nodding in confirmation. “And why wouldn’t we be crying?” Cher asked as if the answer was obvious and I should know. “Whose daft idea was it to put Moments right after Torn?”

And before I could even think of how that had actually happened she threw her hands up theatrically and exclaimed,

“You don’t do that!”

“Yeah, just because we’d seen the show already didn’t mean we were prepared for it emotionally,” Nicole added, “I mean, this was live and it was amazing and I can’t believe we got to see One Direction live and I sound like I’m fangirling so I’ll stop talking.” She made a face but was quick to actually stop talking.

It was weird to see her like this. Even when we’d first run into each other, I could swear she barely blinked and now here she was sounding like one of the many fans we hear most times. I never took her as a fan, or at least a fan that’s screaming and crying because they saw a glimpse of me and the boys. But even besides all that, somehow this Nicole was feistier, playful and not as quiet as the Nicole I’d met a month ago.

I realized I’d been staring at the sheets for a minute or two there, and looked up to find Nicole looking at me with a concerned look masking her features.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“You’re asking me that?” I asked her a little sceptical. She blushed and the three of us had a little laugh about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hai there.  
> So it's been ages since the last chapter went up but I'm back! (:  
> This is the longest chapter yet. Another Louis POV, and things happen. So tell me what you thought, I'd love to know.
> 
> **What do you think about Nicole?**
> 
> **Nicole and Cher and their friendship?**
> 
> **Nicole and Louis?**
> 
> **Do you want to see more of the other lads?**
> 
> **What do you want to see happen?**
> 
> Answer one or all of those and I'll love you forever and find the boys for you and send them over. And even if you don't, I'll still love you, just for reading and send you a flying kiss from the boys, yeah?
> 
> Also, I kinda need your help. I've been trying to find someone to use as a faceclaim for dear Cher and I can't seem to think of anything. If you think you have a person that would be the perfect Cher, do let me know in the comments.
> 
> Thanks for reading. Comments are lovely :) xx
> 
> Here's Nicole's outfit for the chapter btw: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=69622499


	13. Chapter 13

**Nicole's POV**

"Mum, I'm home!" I called out entering the house.

I could hear the sound of chairs scraping on the hardwood floor and faint whisperings coming from the kitchen.

As I walked towards the kitchen, I couldn't help but feel like something was different. It wasn't just the decorated house or the fact that Spots hadn't come bounding at me yet, because I knew my mum would've decorated in my absence and Spots might be napping like the lazy dog he tends to be in the winter time; I just had this feeling that there was something different.

I could hear Cher scuffling behind me.

My mum came from the kitchen, greeting and hugging the two of us. I thought I could hear someone else in the kitchen but it wasnt long until that person came out as well.

"Leah!" I screamed as I hugged her. "Oh my God. It's been so long! You've grown."

I said the latter statement as I held her at arms length and looked at her wholly. She mumbled something inaudible and then pushed me away as she hugged Cher.

"Finally getting to meet you in person," she said. "I've heard lots."

"Good I hope," Cher joked.

We settled into the kitchen over freshly baked gingerbread cookies, my mother leaving to go down to the Cher's aka the Mancini household to help with the dinner preparations.

"Aunt Carol's been telling me about this adventure you were just on," Leah said, "how was that?" she asked before taking a bite of her cookie.

"Before we answer that and get squeals in return," Cher said, "can I just say that I bloody love your accent? It's amazing; you're going to have to teach me."

"I haven't an accent though," Leah replied.

"Says the only non-Britisher in the room," I mumbled.

"Well I do have to admit, I am much cooler than you Britishers, even with your fancy tea and scones and crumpets and Harry Potter," she mocked, speaking with a fake accent. "The British accent is so easy, even I can do it. The Canadian accent on the other hand, takes a while to learn and perfect."

"No Cher it doesn't," I said. "Just do like a New York accent and add eh after ninety percent of the things you say and voila! you have the Canadian accent perfected."

"Right well you two, stop trying to one up each other, we have an adventure to recall," Cher said.

"Well I'm absolutely knackered and I need a shower," I said getting up, only to be pulled down by Cher so I was sitting again. "What was that for?"

"You're sitting right here as I recall everything from our stay with the boys," Cher said.

"Which boys?" Leah asked. "Aunt Carol didn't mention any boys."

"Oh well I mean you probably don't know them so it doesn't even matter," Cher replied. "But they're just the cutest, most amazing five boys ever!"

"Five boys eh?" Leah whistled in awe it seemed. "Which one did you share?"

"Harry?" Cher wondered out loud. "Or would it be Zayn? Maybe Liam ..."

"No one," I said fixing Cher with a look which she just brushed off with the shrug of her shoulders.

"Right, anyway ... who are these boys? They're clearly a big deal."

"Uh, just the biggest boy band in the making," Cher answered. "No wait, they're technically already made."

"And how do you know them?" Leah asked, finally getting to the million dollar question that I knew would eventually come.

"Because I bumped into one of them," I answered.

"Why are you saying that like its no big deal?" Cher asked.

"Because its not," I answered. I knew Cher would hate the answer but I had no idea why it should be a big deal; are the boys not just people too?

Cher rolled her eyes. "I don't want to hear the whole 'aren't they just people too though' thing cuz I don't agree with that. They're famous and totally cute and no one just bumps into them like that. Its fate."

"Interesting," Leah said. "How so?"

"Well we didn't have tickets to their tour, but we got to see four shows for free, all because Nicole here bumped into Louis," Cher replied.

"No, because they needed a photographer last minute," I corrected.

"Which they wouldn't have come to you had you never bumped into Louis and taken him to your flat where he saw your awesome photography skills," Cher retorted.

Okay, I could see her argument making sense but why did she have to keep bringing the whole 'me bumping into Louis' thing up so many times? And mention that I basically had taken him to my flat because I could see that Leah was itching to make a dirty comment.

"Only because he needed a ride to Westfield," I mumbled.

"A ride you say?" Leah asked wiggling her eyebrows.

"Oh get your mind out of the gutter," I said wanting to throw something at her. When I couldn't find anything within reach, I resorted to throwing my ring at her. She moved out of the way and it clattered somewhere on the kitchen floor.

"You're a dirty one," Cher said chuckling as she high-fived Leah. "And you made Coco blush. I only know one other person who can do that."

"Oh yeah?" I asked. "Who's that?"

"Louis," she replied. Why did I even ask? I should've realized where this was going.

"What does this Louis look like? I need to see him. All of them actually," Leah said.

And Cher was quick to bring up a picture of the lads on her phone to show her. She proceeded to name them for her and then give Leah a quick background info session on the five boys. It was when Cher got around to telling Leah about Louis and where he's from, Leah gasped.

"You just said Doncaster?" Leah asked Cher. When she nodded in affirmation, it was like Leah almost stopped breathing. "I just came from there!"

"You just came from Doncaster? But I thought you live in Toronto," Cher wondered.

"You idiot," I said. "She means she just came from the Doncaster Airport ..."

"Yes!" Leah managed to say.

"But I don't get it, what's the big deal?" Cher asked. "It's an airport."

"I mean I could've possibly run into him no?" Leah asked.

"Uhh, what time did you land at the airport?" I asked her.

"Eight, this morning," she replied.

"We were all still in Manchester at eight," Cher revealed.

"Oh," Leah sounded.

"Besides, I think there was car dropping him home anyway," I said. "Same with Zayn ... and Liam ... and Harry. The only one that needed to take a plane is the Irish one."

"Niall?" Leah questioned. She was quick with the names, this could hardly be good.

"Yes. Isn't he adorable?" Cher asked her.

"Absolutely," Leah agreed enthusiastically. "The blonde hair, its totally working for him too," she sighed.

Oh dear. Cher had just converted my cousin to being a One Direction fan in the twenty minutes that we'd talked.

I knew that Cher had lots more to fill Leah in on about the boys, so I tried my hand at sneaking out of the kitchen, only to get caught.

"Where do you think you're going?" Cher questioned with an air of authority. Sometimes it was so easy to forget that Cher was really six months my senior, so those rare moments when she was serious ... they took me by surprise.

"My shower awaits me," I said simply.

"I don't think it does," Cher said. "Now sit your arse back down."

"Oh hush," I said. "I'm tired and I need to change into something more comfortable and preferably take a nap. You keep talking, I'll be back. It's not like my showers in a different country."

Cher and Leah didn't try to stop me again and so I retreated back to the lounge area and picked up my duffel bag before carrying it up to my room.

 

[...]

 

My room was exactly as I'd left it the last time I was here in the summer. The only thing that I hadn't left on my bed (or in my room for that matter) was my cat Whiskers who had made herself at home on my bed. She sat there staring at me, eyes narrowed. It was like she didn't want me back in my room because she loves to hog my bed for herself.

"Whiskers," I said, softly as to not scare her but louder than a whisper. "Lovely to see you too."

I placed my bag on the floor, but it seems that I miscalculated how far the floor really was and so I didn't really place it on the floor ... it landed with a thud. This scared Whiskers which in turn scared me because she hissed, jumped off the bed and bolted out the door from right beside me so fast that I didn't realize she'd left.

I stood shocked in place and I swear I could hear the thudding of my heart in my ears. Whiskers had a tendency to freak out at the smallest of sounds but of course, not living with her for months at times, I forgot how quiet you really have to be around her.

Forgetting about the scare though, I moved again, and walked to my bed. Seeing Whiskers, I was really starting to wonder where Spots was.

Looking around my room at the countless posters of the many bands, musicians and actors, my eyes landed on the few One Direction posters I had put up. Even after spending the majority of the three days of tour with them, I still couldn't believe that Cher and I had done just that! It was completely mind blowing and I still hadn't wrapped my head around how I went from being just Nicole Russo to 'that girl that was on tour with One Direction'.

A hot shower and a hot cup of cocoa after would definitely help with the process. So I did just that. I took my second shower in less than five hours after my first one. But hot showers always help me sleep and I could totally use a nap too.

We'd stayed up way too late last night with the boys to celebrate Louis turning 20. Cher and I had bought Louis a birthday present. Not one together but we'd placed them in the same box to cut down on the space it would take up in the car. Cher's present was a pack of Power Ranger figurines and my present was as cheesy as they get - a teddy bear, which was wearing a hand sewn blue and white striped t-shirt. On it I'd taken felt and cut it in the letters of BOO and sewn that on, and then I'd had Keith, a good college friend of mine, make a wire glasses frame for the bear. Yes, it was totally customized and almost made from scratch. But I love taking on creative projects and this one was fun to make.

We had also given all five boys Christmas presents, which Cher and I had actually bought together or in Harry's case made (somewhat) together. Niall was the only one that didn't get to open his present last night and so he had been rushing to get home to Mullingar this morning where his present awaited him.

However, that wasn't the end of the present giving. It turned out that the boys had gotten together and gotten the two of us Christmas presents as well. And believe me when I say I was surprised when I opened my red gift-wrapped box and Cher opened her green gift-wrapped box, and we saw a solid coloured OnePiece in our respective boxes, matching the wrapping paper of said boxes.

After throwing on sweats and a warm jumper, I walked down the stairs and followed Cher's voice and Leah's laughter into the lounge only to be attacked by Spots. Nearly receiving a second heart attack in the last hour, I actually laughed this time. Cher and Leah chuckled with me.

"He came in while you were in the shower," Cher informed me.

"Oh I missed you so much!" I said scratching behind Spots' ears. He wagged his tail, woofed in response and then followed me to the couch.

"Hope I haven't missed much," I said.

"Not at all," Cher responded. "I was just getting to last night and how I beat you in that game we played."

"I totally won that and you know it so don't say otherwise," I said.

"Please don't fight right now," Leah interrupted before Cher could say anything else. "I really want to hear the rest!"

Cher proceeded to tell Leah about the presents. I was really hoping she'd be done recalling everything by now.

"I actually think I saw Louis' cheeks go pink when he took out the bear from the box," Cher said referring to my birthday present to Louis. "I think we managed to get pictures too. Do you have them Coco?"

"On the camera," I said.

"Do you think you could maybe pass the camera this way then?" Cher retorted.

I'm too tired, I wanted to complain. But instead I just reached my foot to the other couch where my camera bag was lying and managed to push it close enough for me to pick it up and pass to Cher.

She proceeded to tell the rest of the night looking through the pictures after showing Leah the picture of Louis seeing the bear the first time. If I had any say in what his expression was, I'd honestly say surprised but somewhat delighted.

"Right so next we gave them their Christmas presents, and Louis' first cause we decided to go from oldest to youngest to be fair ..."

There was a pause as she changed pictures on the camera screen.

"His face is priceless!" Leah exclaimed as she laughed. "Is that a boat? Is that the present?"

"Is he a collector or something?" she continued with her questions when Cher nodded to her previous ones.

"Not that we know of," Cher replied. "But it is an inside joke between the boys themselves and the fans and we couldn't possibly get him the real deal so we managed to find this yacht-like model and buy it."

"Must've cost a fortune though," Leah commented.

"Compared to Niall's gift, this was nothing," Cher said, "... which makes me realize that we still haven't gotten a call from him!" Cher slapped my shoulder, hard, in her frantic excitement.

"The bloody hell was that for?" I asked her, rubbing the now stinging sensation.

She apologized. "Just a little excitement for when he does call going all crazy," Cher said before turning back to Leah and continuing with her tale.

"Right, so where was I?" she asked. "Oh right! Zayn opened his present next. We found this cool collector's edition comic book, I can't remember the name of it ... but yeah, he was really happy when he saw it."

"And what about when he saw that picture?" I asked her.

Cher, being the dolt she is, managed to put a picture of Perrie Edwards from Little Mix inside the comic book before I wrapped it up. So when Zayn flipped through the book, the picture flew out and fell to the ground. When he saw it, I thought he maybe wanted to smile but stopped himself, and gave the two of us a smoldering glare. And he didn't believe that I had nothing to do with the picture when I tried to tell him so.

I mean, of course he wasn't mad about it much longer but I just wished Cher had put the picture away, in her bag, where she was supposed to put it back after I told her to, the day we were wrapping everything up.

"What?" Cher asked as if she'd done nothing wrong. "I just wanted to see what his reaction was ..."

"And he clearly likes her but that was embarrassing," I stated.

"And you would clearly know that," Cher said. It was like she was trying to imply something.

"What? That it was embarrassing? Because it certainly was."

"No, that he likes her," Cher said.

"Well it's obvious," I said. "Seriously, where are you trying to steer this conversation? Go back to your story telling."

"She'll never see what's right in front of her," Leah commented.

I swear I'd left the two of them together for just under 30 minutes and they already had secrets.

"What can't I see in front of me? The fireplace?" I asked sarcastically. "Or the fact that the two of you already share secrets?"

"It's not a secret," Leah said. "You just don't see it."

"Fine then," I said getting up. "Spots, come on, we'll go 'see' our own things."

"That doesn't even make sense," Cher called behind me.

"And it sounds like your gunna go do drugs or something," Leah yelled out. "Not cool!"

Trying to not pay any attention to them, I walked to the kitchen once again but this time with Spots in tow.

As I raided my way through the kitchen cupboards, looking for snacks, I heard someone else walk into the kitchen. I looked to find my dad, smiling at me.

"Hey sweetie," he said before pulling me into a hug.

"Hi dad," I tried to say but it got muffled in the hug.

Letting go of me, he asked,

"How'd your gig go?"

"It was fun," I answered, not being able to help myself and smiling big. "More people photo experience if anything."

"That's great," he said. "Did you like the surprise?" He nodded to the door that he'd just come through and I understood that he meant Leah.

"Yes," I said. "How did any of this come about though? And how did you manage to keep it a secret from me?"

"Well it wasn't hard," he said. "You hardly call so it wasn't as if there was the chance of accidentally telling you."

"I've been busy dad," I managed to say. "Sorry."

It was true; I had barely called home this semester. And the few times that I had called or my mum had called me, my father was busy at the restaurant.

"Hmm, I've heard all about it. " he sounded almost disappointed if anything.

I wasn't sure what he meant by that but before I could ask him, Leah came in through the doorway.

"Do you have anything to eat? I'm starved," she said.

"I can make you something," I said.

My dad took this as an opportunity to leave.

"I'll leave you two to catch up," he said before leaving.

"Cheese omelette okay with you?" I asked her once my dad had left.

"Works for me," she said, seating herself at the breakfast bar.

I washed my hands and grabbed the ingredients from the fridge, which Spots had chosen to sit beside and watch my actions.

"Where's Cher?" I asked her, breaking the eggs into a bowl and proceeding to whip them.

"Uncle Tom sent her home, something about her mum needing her in the kitchen ..." she answered.

"So you being here is your parents' Christmas present to you?" I asked next.

"Yup," she said.

"How did you ever manage to keep this a secret though?" I asked her. It was really bothering me that I hadn't found out before today.

"Consider it a late birthday present, so of course I had to keep it a surprise," Leah said. I couldn't see her because my back was facing her but I could tell from her voice that she was smiling wide.

"Well then," I said turning to face her, "this the best surprise ever." I shot her a smile and she beamed. "And that's something to say because I hate surprises."

"Good," she said, "because you're going to have to tolerate me for a few days in London too."

"Anything for you Li," I said.

I finished cooking our cheese omelettes and we ate them all the while I caught up with Leah about her life back in Toronto.

We then drifted to discussing some of the things we wanted to do the coming summer when we would be in Italy for one of my cousins' wedding. That conversation somehow transformed into what Leah wanted to do while she was here and boy, was her list long.

Soon after, we made our way to Cher's house to help out with the dinner. Leah actually fell asleep on the couch, her jetlag finally getting to her. James was ready to draw a mustache on her while she slept but the fact that my dad was there scared him into not doing anything stupid of the kind.

And later that night, with Christmas Day just hours away, we sat down at the Mancini's grand dining table to eat our festive meal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! with a new chapter and a new character. What does everyone think of Leah? I'd love to know so let me know in the comments. And thanks for reading :) xx


	14. Chapter 14

**Nicole's POV**

Leah and I were sat in front of the Christmas tree in our pajamas but the lack of sleep was apparent with the amount of yawning going on.

My dad had woken the two of us up just moments ago and it wasn't even 7 yet. But of course, we had to be awake early to open our presents and then help out with the Christmas Dinner that we'd be eating later in the afternoon.

I yawned again.

"Can we open them now?" Leah asked impatiently.

"Just a second," my father said just as his phone vibrated. He quickly read the text and then signaled for us to open our presents.

Within 15 minutes, I'd torn through all my boxes and had my presents laying out in front of me.

I had gotten a camera lens from Cher and James (one that I'd been looking at and saving for months now), an old school camera from Rosa and Nick (mummy and daddy Mancini), a digital picture frame from Keith and a ton of other stuff; most of it was the usual photography stuff, a few other things were cooking things and then a few other items were the usual socks and scarves. But amongst it I didn't see anything from my parents.

When I questioned them about it, they were very vague and basically just shrugged but didn't say anything.

Leah's presents, it turned out, had already been opened by her in Toronto and my present to her was never sent there because of her plans to come here. She had waited for me to finish opening my presents so that she could open my present to her. It would be the first time that I'd actually get to see her reaction opening one of my presents.

"Opening it now," she announced before tearing through gift wrap. She let out a happy scream when she saw the collection of albums that lay in the box.

"Oh my God! I'm probably one of the first people in North America to have this album!" she exclaimed holding up the Yearbook Edition of _Up All Night_. "And this," she said holding up Olly's _In Case You Didn't Know_. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed again. "I love you. I love you. I love you," she said as she hugged me. "This is **_THE_** best Christmas present ever!"

I couldn't help but smile at her reaction. I was glad that she would be enjoying the albums.

She looked through the track listing of the two albums and proceeded to look through Cher Lloyd, The Wanted and Ed Sheeran's albums as well. It was at that time that the doorbell rang. My mum got the door and in came Cher, James and their parents.

Even though I was finding their being here in their pajamas a little more than odd, we got to talking and thanking each other for the presents. Cher was freaking out about the 1D dolls that I'd gotten her when the doorbell rang again.

This time however, our parents told the two of us to get the door together. Finding this even more odd, which just made today the most odd day ever, we opened the door where much to both our surprise Mr. and Mrs. Smith, our neighbours from a few houses down, were standing on the porch each holding a puppy.

"Merry Christmas girls," they immediately said seeing the two of us.

"Merry Christmas," Cher and I managed to say before looking at each other, both of us wondering the same thing ... what the bloody hell was going on?

"Come on in," I said.

"Oh no no, we just came to drop these little guys off, we should get going," Mr. Smith said.

"Yes," Mrs. Smith added, "Lacey's all alone with the pups, we really should get back."

"Your parents wanted us to come and give these puppies to you," Mr. Smith said handing the pup that he was holding to Cher, while Mrs. Smith handed the pup she was holding to me.

Cher and I stood in the doorway even after the Smiths had left, not wanting to believe what just happened. We looked at each other and it seemed that just when the both of us were about to ask the other what the pups were all about, we heard our parents call our names in concern.

We walked into the lounge, the surprise evident on our faces.

"Merry Christmas girls," the four adults said as we came into their view.

"You got us ..." Cher trailed and looked at the pup in her arms.

"Puppies?" I finished the question for her. I was just as confused as she was.

Rosa looked at Cher in concern and then at her husband as if signalling him to say something.

"We ... er, we thought you'd be happy to finally have a pet," Nicholas said. He seemed utterly confused at Cher's reaction.

"I am," Cher promptly said. "At least I think I am."

She sat on the floor and set the puppy down as well. The pup took in its surroundings and then barked a couple of times before walking around a bit. Cher looked at her new pup dazed and the pup seemed confused as to where it was.

I looked up to find my parents looking at me keenly.

"And what are you confused about?" my mum asked me.

"Um," I managed to say.

My father gestured for me to spit it out and so I did,

"Where are they going to stay? Here or are they coming to London with us when we go back?"

My father sighed, in relief it seemed.

"I thought you would say you didn't want the pup," he said.

Since he hadn't answered my question I waited for him to do so.

"Oh um, as for where they're going to stay," he said, "they're yours so they go where you go."

"Put a smile on that face," James added, "do you know who you're holding?" he asked.

I shook my head. I wanted to say the obvious and say it was a puppy but James was speaking again before I could say anything.

"Spots' pups," he said.

Cher and I both gaped him.

"Spots is a daddy. Can you believe it?" my mum asked.

I sure couldn't. My baby was the father of the new pups in the house. They grow up so fast.

"Where is Spots?" I asked finally finding my voice. "That naughty dog."

I earned a few chuckles with that comment and that seemed to dismiss the present opening ceremony. I guess Cher and me receiving the pups was the last present. The parents all went to the kitchen and James followed behind them a few moments later, commenting on how starved he was. That left me, Cher, Leah and the two new pups.

Leah placed herself on the couch in front of me and Cher.

"So what are you going to name them?" she asked.

[...]

Naming pets had always been a tough thing to do. It seemed like a chore and I sure wasn't any good with picking names (see: Spots and Whiskers). I wasn't any good with picking names in general. I'd named my first teddy bear Mr. Bear, the most common and boring bear name in history, and any subsequent bears weren't lucky with their names either.

And so here we were, Cher, Leah and I, scouring the internet for good boy dog names. I was trying to come up with a pair of names that went together sort of like Humpty Dumpty or Jekyll and Hyde but of course something cuter and more unique than the latter.

"Abercrombie and Fitch?" I asked giving up.

"Too common," Cher replied without looking up from the computer screen.

"Sherlock and Watson?" Leah suggested as she played with the two pups. She couldn't get enough of the two and the pups, it seemed, couldn't get enough of her.

"What do you say Cher? I'll take Sherlock, you can have Watson," I said then pausing. "... actually I kinda want Watson too."

Cher looked up from the screen.

"Better yet, I'll call mine Johnlock and you can take Moriarty," I added. She looked at me in disbelief.

"What? Moriarty is cool," I said shrugging.

Cher shook her head and went back to searching the net.

"Mario and Luigi?" Leah said next. "They're like perfect Italian names and they're brothers, what's better?"

"I don't know," I said looking at the pups. "They don't really seem like a Mario and Luigi to me. What do you think Cher?"

Cher hardly looked up this time before saying, "Not really feeling them."

I looked at Leah to find her looking at me in confusion. She might not have known Cher as long as I have but anyone would be able to tell that there was something that was clearly bothering her. She hardly spoke since we had received the pups and it was really starting to worry me now. She should be more excited about this.

"Is everything alright?" I asked her.

It was like she didn't hear me; she didn't look up from the screen or make any sound to acknowledge the question.

"Cher?" Nothing again. "Cheryl!" I spoke louder this time and finally got her attention. Her head snapped from the computer screen to me and at first her face was masked with confusion but that quickly changed to irritation.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"I'm fine," she answered.

"Well you don't seem it. Is something bothering you?"

She didn't say anything for a minute. She sighed before answering this time.

"It's just that ... I've never had a pet," she said. But I already knew that. She'd been bothering her parents to get her a pet since she had seen Spots the first time. Nicholas and Rosa hadn't heeded to her request considering that taking care of a brother and sister who bickered 24/7 was more than enough for them at the time.

 "I feel too old to have a pet now ..." she paused before quietly adding, "... and they don't allow pets in my building."

"Is that what you're worried about?" I asked. She nodded.

"I don't want to leave him here," she explained.

"Well that can be easily taken care of. We can bring both of them to my flat, you'll have more the reason to drop by that way too," I offered.

That arrangement would actually take care of a few things at once. The pups would have a companion to play with and with Cher's longs hours at uni, she would actually be leaving her pup alone all that time which is not good. And since I'm more experienced in the pets department, which Cher would not at all argue with, it would be better for the pups to stay with me; at least until they're more trained than they are right now.

"That actually sounds good," she said, her face slowly breaking into a smile. "You can do the gritty work of training them both and I'll come 'round to play with them." It was safe to say that she was back to herself.

With that out of the way then, we continued onwards on our task. We spent another half hour thinking of names with no luck.

Giving up, Leah had decided she wanted to listen to her CD's but she was unsure of which first, Olly or Ed? Looking at her holding the two CD's in her hand gave me the perfect names.

"Ollie and Eddie," I exclaimed.

"Which one first?" Leah asked.

"Your choice. I was talking about the names. Ollie and Eddie, I think they'd be perfect," I said.

"I quite like those," Cher said thoughtfully. "No actually ... they _are_ perfect."

Leah looked around confused and her eyes landed on two albums she was holding.

"Oooh, I see what you did there," she said. "But wait, Olly with a -y or -i-e?"

"-i-e," Cher promptly replied. "I don't like the way Eddie would look with a y."

"Agreed, and they have to be spelled similar too. So Ollie and Eddie with an -i-e then?"

"Perfect," Cher said.

At that same moment, we heard two popping sounds from our phones, letting me and Cher know that we both had a notification on Facebook.

We looked straight to each other after looking at the notification, which was an invite to a party for New Years. The only weird thing about the invite was the fact that we hardly knew the girl whose house the party was at.

We both scrolled down the invite page. Never mind ... that wasn't the only weird thing on that page. Cher gasped audibly after, I'm assuming, reading the same comment as me.

"Why is she inviting us to a party?" Cher asked. "Let me rephrase that. Why would she request people that have us on their friends list to invite us?"

"I don't know but it's not like we're gonna go," I said putting my phone away.

Whatever her plans were, there was no way either me or Cher would fall prey to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo, long time since the last chapter ... but at the same time I'm thinking this little break was the smallest break I've had between getting chapters up, so yay! :) 
> 
> Christmasy chapter with a small hint of trouble near the end, what do you think? Any ideas of what you think might happen next? Tell me in the comments :)
> 
> This was supposed to have gone up at least two weeks ago because that's how long it's been done but I was having a friend read it and she only got back to me about it last night. So anyway, it's up now, that's what matters.
> 
> Chapter 15 has been written. I might post that in about a week's time from now (unless I decide that I want to change something about it). Working away on Chapter 16 atm. Half done but I shall see if I even use any of what I've written at all for that chapter.
> 
> And if you're reading the end notes, then I'm assuming that you've read the chapter, so leave your thoughts in a comment, I'd love to know what you think :) xx


	15. Chapter 15

**Nicole's POV**

It was New Years Eve and the streets had been lined with cars on either side as friends and families got together to bid farewell to 2011 and welcome 2012.

Cher, Leah and I made our way down the streets in my Mini to our destination. It was a house on a huge lot with an ocean view but tonight the lights were on and we could feel the bass as we neared the house.

"So um, remind me again why we're going to this party?" Cher asked.

"Because we're normal people and normal people go to parties," I told her a fifth time as I pulled the car up close to the house only to see that there was not one spot we could park at. I looked around and noticed the parking lot at the little park on Sea Cliff Road still had a few spots unused. I quickly drove us there and parked the car. A few other cars had also just arrived at the parking lot. This party really must be the party to be at tonight.

"Did you and Uncle Tom have a fight?" Leah inquired smoothing out her dress as she stood on the walkway waiting for Cher to get out from the back of the car. I was surprised that my father had let her step out of the house in it. Whereas I had gone for a sparkly top and jeans, Leah had opted for a smaller, fancier black dress. And Cher had planned on coming in sweats; well actually, not at all planning to come. It had taken both Leah and me to get her up and out of her clothes and into something more party-like. She'd complained about it then and she was complaining about it still. We ignored her.

"What makes you say that?" I asked her.

"I don't know. You said you wouldn't go to this party but here we are," Leah answered. "And you did have a talk with Uncle Tom earlier."

"Oh, he just wanted to talk about the arrangement for getting to London," I said. Because we had two extra passengers now, and my Mini being a Mini, there was no way that three girls and two dogs in their carriers would all fit. My dad just wanted to let me know that he had some meeting in London, and that he could bring along Ollie and Eddie down to my flat, so that us three girls can enjoy our drive back.

"Then why are we here? I thought we agreed we wouldn't come," Cher huffed, her breath visible in the cool temperature of the night.

"I think we should hear her out," I said cautiously. Cher's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to probably tell me that I was an idiot but I didn't let her speak. "There has got to be a reason she requested that someone invite us. It won't hurt to see why she called us."

"Don't be naive Nicole; you know what she's like. I hardly think she called us here to say sorry. That word doesn't exist in her vocabulary."

Cher felt very strongly about this and I knew that.

We continued walking up the ocean-view walkway and to our original destination.

"Seriously Cher, what have we got to lose? If things don't work out we'll be at a party, we don't even have to see her face," I tried to reason with her.

"High school drama?" Leah asked. She wasn't one to pry into other people's lives but I could tell she couldn't help herself but wonder. Cher just seemed like someone who would get along with everyone. And believe me she does with everyone, except Rebecca.

"Something like that," Cher answered under her breath.

We arrived at the foot of the house. The feel of the bass was more striking here and we could make silhouettes of people in the lounge, and lights flashing. The host had gone all out on this party.

Taking a deep breath, I started up the house, Cher and Leah following behind me.

We got into the hall, and there seemed to be a commotion in the lounge but ignoring that I went deeper into the house to find myself in the kitchen. No one noticed as I walked in, not that I was that noticeable. For a moment I thought that Cher and Leah abandoned me but upon turning around I found them right behind me.

Not spotting the person I wanted to see in there, I went out the double sliding doors and walked onto the patio. A few heads turned this time and a couple of girls whispered as they stared at me. Ignoring that, I asked them where I would find Rebecca only to be given blank stares.

"Looking for me?" I heard a familiar voice speak from behind me. I turned to face the source, finding Rebecca in a short, shiny dress looking as pretty as ever.

"Rebecca," I managed to voice when I noticed that neither Cher nor Leah were anywhere in sight. _Great._

I felt my phone vibrate in my hand indicating the arrival of a text but before I could take a look at it, Rebecca threw her arms around me in a sort of hug. It was like she was actually happy to see me, though the hug was rather awkward and rather unnecessary.

"C'mon, there are people waiting to see you," Rebecca said. She pulled me up the stairs and into a large bedroom, where indeed people were just waiting; they were sitting around, God knows waiting for what.

"She's here," Rebecca announced as we walked in.

_Who's here?_

"Fucking finally," someone said. "I was beginning to think that you didn't know her at all."

"Um, who are they talking about?" I whispered to Rebecca.

"You," she quietly replied.

All eyes were on me. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what they wanted with me and why Rebecca would go around telling these girls that she knows me; we're not even friends to be honest.

"So," Rebecca said after thirty seconds of pure awkwardness.

I was still standing where we'd first stopped in the room. I just couldn't move if I tried. What could they possibly want from me?

"Is she going to tell us anything?" another voice asked.

_Tell what?_

"How you know One Direction?" a third voice said. Not only had I just thought that out loud but now I was wishing I'd listened to Cher in the first place.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said with a straight face. My best choice right now was to just pretend and lie about knowing the boys and to keep wishing for Earth to swallow me whole.

"Yes you do," Rebecca insisted.

"No I don't," I said almost immediately.

Rebecca narrowed her eyes at me, excused herself and pulled me out into the hall.

"What do you think you're doing?" she angrily whispered at me.

"What do you think _you're_ doing?" I repeated. "We're not even friends yet you told those girls that we are and –"

"– for your information, I never told them I'm friends with you, I only said I know you. Why can't you just tell them what you know about the boys anyway?" she asked. "Are you dating one of them?"

"No," I responded. What a thought, dating one of them like that was ever going to happen. However, I thought it safest to keep with my previous plan. "I don't even know them."

"Yes you do," Rebecca said for a second time. She said it with such certainty that it was starting to scare me.

"How can you be so sure that I possibly know them?" I asked.

She kept quiet as she pulled out her phone and pulled up something or another. Then, she turned her screen so it was facing me. It was a picture of me, getting out of my car at the hotel in Manchester.

"You see this girl," Rebecca said pointing to me in the picture, "that is you and this car," she pointed to the Mini, "is yours. And besides, you're shit at lying."

There was no point in playing dumb, Rebecca was smart; she'd put two and two together and arrived at the correct answer. And me being 'shit' at lying, so to speak, was a pretty universal fact. But what I didn't understand was why she expected me to tell all about the boys to her _friends_.

"Alright, fine, you got me," I said. "I do know the boys, but what does that matter with you or your friends?"

"You have information about them, that's all they want. They want to know how you met them and what you were doing at their hotel," she said.

"Well that," I said "is none of your business. Or theirs." I pointed to the closed door.

"Please Nicole, help me out here," Rebecca said.

I think my mouth dropped open in surprise and I stared at Rebecca with some shock. She'd just said please and she sounded ... desperate.

"Look I don't get why you need me to do this for you," I began, "you just said we're not friends and I don't owe you anything. You know what, Cher was right. I should never have come here actually expecting something good out of you. I thought that you would've outgrown the whole 'let's make Nicole and Cher's lives miserable' phase by now but you've proved me wrong."

Rebecca gasped and opened her mouth to speak but didn't and shut it instead. She must've realized that I was right.

I turned and not looking back, I walked – ran – down the stairs and out the house and back down towards the path we'd taken to the house. I found an empty bench and sat down, breathing in the salty ocean breeze. I took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm myself. Sure I'd managed to get out of the house without any other trouble but this was really bothering me.

Rebecca and I had a history. We used to be the best of friends. So this whole "Nicole please help me out" thing was really bugging me. We'd barely exchanged a proper sentence in years and then here she was tonight, just expecting me to do something for her when all she's ever done is made life hard for me – and Cher.

I took in a few more breaths of the cold, salty air to calm myself further. I looked up and from where I was sitting, I had a perfect view of the ocean; the moon was high in the sky, shining down on the water, giving it a pretty glow. _I wish I'd brought my camera._

Thinking about my camera somehow reminded me about my phone and the text I never got to see, so I brought out my phone and saw that the text had come from Cher. It said,

**_All the best. x_ **

I'd known Rebecca pretty much my entire life, almost four years more than Cher, and yet, I was wrong when it came to her. Cher was right, about Rebecca ... and about me being too naive.

I tried calling Cher and Leah to find out where they were only to hear endless ringing on both numbers. Hopefully they were actually enjoying the last night of 2011 unlike me.

"Nicole?" I heard a voice call my name; it came somewhere from my right. I looked over to find the person standing a few meters away from the bench I was sitting at. Whoever it was was standing right in the dark spot between two lampposts. I couldn't tell who it was. Scarborough was a small place, everyone pretty much knew everyone else, especially the kids and teenagers.

"Yeah?" I asked.

The person walked closer to where I was, walking right under a lamppost. It was then I realized who it was!

"Richard?" I questioned.

"Thank God," he said, laughing nervously. "I thought for a moment there that you'd forgotten me."

He was standing right beside the bench now.

"Well you can't blame me if I had," I said, "you sound different."

I got up to give him a quick hug and it was then that I realized that I actually missed him – a lot.

"So how's LA treating you?" I asked, sitting down once again.

"Good," he answered, sitting down beside me. "I got accepted into the Film and Television program and I just finished my first semester for that, and it's going great."

"That's great," I said. "I'm happy everything's working out for you."

"How's everything with you?" he asked.

"Splendid," I said putting a smile on my face.

"Liar," he said almost immediately. "You're upset about something, I saw you run out the house and I called your name but I don't think you heard me."

"It is awfully loud in there," I said, looking out into the water.

"You're avoiding telling me," he noted more to himself than anything.

We sat in silence for a few minutes.

There was a time, almost two years ago, when the two of us were inseparable. And regardless of what my father thought of Richard, the two of us spent a lot of time together. But here we were, two years later, sitting in silence.

"Soooo," he began breaking the silence in the process, "how's college going for you?"

"Alright," I answered.

"Are you still taking photography?" he asked next. I guess it was better for him to ask questions than to sit in silence.

"Mmhm," I nodded.

"I'm surprised your father let you ..." he trailed.

"Actually, he didn't," I revealed.

He raised his eyebrows.

"Well, he didn't want me to," I cleared. "But I –"

"—but you're you, and stubborn and you managed to get your way, didn't you?"

"Something like that," I confirmed, echoing Cher's words from earlier.

He chuckled. "You haven't changed one bit," he said.

I turned my head to look at him. His face was masked in the moonlight. He looked rather calm.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, you're the same old Nicky," he said.

I scrunched up my nose in disgust. "I can honestly say I haven't missed being called that," I let him know.

He made a sad puppy face looking at me. "I really missed being called Ricky though," he said.

At first I thought he was joking but when he didn't laugh, I realized he was being serious.

I opened my mouth to say that he hated being called that but before I could, there was noise above us of fireworks going off and very loud cheering coming from the house where the party was being held.

"Happy New Year Nicole," Richard said getting up.

I'm not sure why, but I stood up as well and I think Richard took that as a silent signal to hug.

His strong arms went around me and he held me there for a moment too long, a moment longer than necessary, a moment that made hugging my ex incredibly more awkward than a simple hug needed to be.

And to make things more awkward, he whispered in my ear before he stalked away, back towards the house.

"I missed you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So ... um ... sorry for the delay in getting this chapter up. I was busy with finals all last week and then I had some plans with friends and didn't have wifi to get anything up for a couple of days and then I was sick, fever and all. Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the new character additions (though I'm not sure atm how many times they'll make an appearance again, if ever) and plot development(s), so please don't hesitate to leave them behind in a comment or two (:
> 
> p.s. if you're still with me and my crazy unscheduled postings, I love you <3  
> p.p.s. I apologize for the lack of Louis and the rest of the lads in this chapter. you'll see more of one or more boys again in chapter 17 or 18 (at least according to my current outline) but that also depends on how I go about writing the next chapter (:


	16. Chapter 16

**Nicole's POV**

The girls and I were sat having lunch at _La Piazza_. I heard my phone vibrate on the surface of the table over the very little sound of the almost non-existent lunch crowd in the restaurant at the time.

It was a text from an unknown number and it read.

**_Could you meet me outside? –Richard_ **

I looked at my phone, just a little more than surprised. I had no idea how he'd gotten my number. I hadn't a mobile before college and I definitely hadn't given it to him at any time since I'd gotten it because we hadn't talked in almost two years. Sure my memory fails me more often than not but I was 100% sure that he couldn't have had my number.

"Is everything alright?" Cher questioned. She was seated across from me and I looked to find her looking at me with concern.

"Fine," I said. But Cher and Leah both gave me a look that had me talking again. "I just got a text from Richard, he's waiting outside ..." I looked back down at the phone in my hand. I didn't know what to do.

"There's no need to see him," Cher immediately said. My head snapped to look at her.

I think noticing the look on my face, Leah who was sat beside Cher, stepped on her foot, to which Cher nearly jumped out of her seat. She didn't say anything further, rather just glared at Leah. It was as if she was trying to tell Leah something without actually speaking.

Regardless of whatever was going between Leah and Cher and not wanting to figure it out, I excused myself and picked up my coat before leaving the restaurant.

True to his text, Richard was indeed waiting outside.

He visibly relaxed upon seeing me coming out the restaurant.

"Hey," he said as I got to where he was standing on the other side of the small street, "sorry about coming out so randomly. I got your number from your dad."

"You spoke to my dad?" I inquired.

"Yeah, he was rather ... nice ..." he answered. It was like he couldn't be too sure about my father actually being nice to him. Truth be told, I couldn't either. It seemed very fishy.

"Right, anyway," Richard said speaking again, "I called you out here to ..." he paused while it seemed like he was searching for the right word, "... apologize to you for anything that I might've said or done the night of New Year's ..."

I looked at him for an explanation. The only things he'd said were that I was still the same old Nicole he knew and that he missed me, and the only thing he'd done was hug me.  Why would be need to apologize for any of those?

"You look confused," he said.

"I am confused," I replied. "What exactly are you apologizing for?"

"Everything," he said quietly, looking at me and then quickly averting his gaze to the ground. He looked back up just as quickly.

"You don't get what I mean do you?" he asked. However, without waiting for an answer, he continued talking. "I – it's just that ... I might have been a little under the influence that night and all but that doesn't mean it was okay for me let slip any of what I said. It's not fair to either of us and I'm sorry."

"Don't be," I said.  "It was nice seeing you and talking to you again ..."

"You don't get it," he mumbled. "I'm seeing this girl and it's not fair to her either if I'm telling you that I miss you. I mean sure, I didn't expect to run into you and I sure as hell didn't expect you to look so good and yes, Jessie and I, we're not exclusive or anything but even then ...  it's taken me a long time to get over  you and move on."

I stood quietly, trying to make sense of everything I'd just heard.

"Please say something," Richard whispered. So I did.

"I'm not sure _why_ you're explaining all this to me ... I've known for a long time, since things ended, that we were never gonna happen again. But I hope that things work out with you and this Jessie, I really do. And I hope she knows she's a lucky girl to have you."

Richard looked at me and blinked twice, while I assume that he tried to make sense of everything I just said.

"I'm glad you're taking all of this okay ..." he looked relieved to say the least. "I guess telling you all this was really just for my sake. I feel terrible about not calling you all this time. I tried, I really did. I'd pick up the phone, dial your number and it would go straight to voicemail. I even left a few messages ... but I guess you didn't want to talk to me ..."

"Was this the summer after we ... um, broke up?" I asked. I had a feeling at what the answer would be.

"Yeah ..." he replied a little unsure.

"I'm pretty sure I was in Toronto for most of that summer," I revealed. "Daddy wasn't there too long but he didn't say anything ... about any messages." I realized what happened. "I think I know why I never got your messages."

"Well it doesn’t matter anyway," he said. "We're cool right?"

It did matter.

"Spoken like a true American," I joked instead. I didn't want to damper the mood, not when things were actually not bad between the two of us for once.

He grinned. "Mum's really annoyed at me too for talking like a Yank. I can't help it though!"

"Excuses, excuses," I said shaking my head at him. He laughed along.

"Listen, what're you up to tomorrow?" he asked.

"I'm actually headed back to London," I answered.

"Oh," he sounded dejected. "Never mind then."

"Why? What's tomorrow?" I asked.

"Nothing," he replied. "I just thought maybe we could hangout ... for old times' sake."

My mouth had gone dry. It was like my worst nightmare coming true.

"I ..." I tried to make sense of what I wanted to say. "I don't think that's a good idea," I finally said.

His face looked crestfallen. I immediately felt bad.

I opened my mouth to speak again; to tell him that what I meant wasn't that I wouldn't want to hangout with him but rather what the consequences of that could be, but he beat me to it.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he said. "I don't know what I was thinking." He gave me a small smile.

After a few seconds of silence, he spoke again,

"Well, I'll let you get back," he said pointing in the direction of _La Piazza_. "See you around?"

"Sure," I nodded. Not sure how many times we'd bump into each other with me being in London and him being in LA but I kept that to myself.

For a second I thought he was going to hug me, but he stopped himself, lightly shaking his head. The action was almost unnoticeable but I noticed it still.

As he walked back towards his car, hands in coat pocket, I walked back inside the restaurant, glad for the warmth. Leah was the first to spot me and whatever conversation she was having with Cher stopped before I got to the table.

I had hardly sat back in my chair when Cher spoke up.

"What the hell happened to you?" she said. "You look like you've been hit by a truck."

That was most definitely not a pretty picture she was painting for me.

"I told you not to go see him," she continued saying, "What did he say? Does he need a beating?"

Even Leah was shaking her head at the things Cher was saying.

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"The look on your face," Leah answered for Cher, to which Cher just nodded in agreement.

"Well I can take care of myself thank you very much," I said. "And Richard didn't say anything to make me upset, okay?"

"At least she admits to being upset," Cher whispered, looking down at her plate. This time, it wasn't Leah that stepped on her foot, I did.

Cher gasped and tried to step on my foot in revenge but she missed because I got up, picking up my car keys from on the table as I did.

"Don't you even dare try," I gave her a look. She glared back mumbling curse words.

I quickly pulled a couple bills from my wallet and left them on the table to pay for the meal before the three of us exited the restaurant and walked towards my car.

The plan, as we came up with it on the way to the car, was for me to drop the two of them home before I went and saw my father, regarding all that had just happened. But I didn't tell Cher and Leah that. They already thought I was upset and this would only add to their theories.

It wasn't that I wasn't upset or that I was upset; I just didn't know which one I should be until I'd talked to my father. And so here I was, parked in the restaurant parking lot. I was already dreading the decision to come down but this talk had to be done, the sooner the better. So I got out of the car, locked it, sucked in a big breath of air to calm myself and pushed through the doors and entered the busy restaurant.

[...]

Two hours later, when I walked in through the door to my house, Leah and Cher seemed to be in the midst of leaving it.

"Bloody hell have you been?" Cher asked as soon as she saw me.

"Nowhere," I quickly replied. "Where you headed?"

"Mine," she answered. "We got tired of calling and waiting for you ..."

"So are you coming with us or what?" Leah asked. But without waiting for an answer, she was pulling me out the door again. 

After a quick walk to Cher's house down the street, we arrived in her room, Leah gasping at the sight. She hadn't yet seen Cher's poster filled room because we'd spent most of our time at my house or outside.

Leah was stood at one of the many walls with the One Direction posters and staring at them in awe, while I sat on the bed and looked at her lit up face. Cher was downstairs in the kitchen probably raiding it of all food.

"I'm so totally jealous that you got to meet these boys in real life," she said.

I let out a sigh.

Leah turned around looking distracted, and asked,

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, fine," I said. "Why do you ask?"

"You just sighed," she said.

"What, am I not allowed to sigh?" I asked, just a little irritated.

"No, it's just ..." Leah trailed. "It wasn't one those sighs you do when you're tired, it seemed upset."

I looked at her unsure if she was just really close to me and knew me too well or if I was really an open book for people to just read through.

"I'm not upset," I said. I could tell she didn't believe me but she didn't say anything. That was the good thing about Leah; she would stop poking around when you wanted her to.

Cher walked in just moments later, crisp bags, cookies and biscuits, juice boxes in hand; her hands were so filled she had to use her foot to close the door.

"Oh by the way Coco," she said as she placed everything on her bed, "Niall called." She was beaming with excitement. I couldn't help but forget my troubles as I chose to hear out her story.

"And what did he say?" I asked, wiggling an eyebrow at her. She took no notice of it.

"Well firstly, he apologized for the delay in the call," she said seriously. Leah had turned around interested to hear this as well; though I'm sure she was present during the call and had probably pestered Niall one way or another. "And then of course, he thanked us for his present, said he absolutely loved it!" Cher squealed.

"Oh and I might've pretended to be you and talked to him," Leah added.

"Are you telling me he didn't notice?" I asked.

"Absolutely clueless," Cher said laughing.

"But you don't even sound like me," I said. I was appalled that Niall hadn't noticed that he was talking to someone else entirely.

"Um, yeah I do," Leah said, in a 'British' accent.

I gasped. "I don't sound anything like that!"

Cher was already in stitches, and my last comment had Leah in a fit as well.

"I'm gunna have to call him up and set the record straight," I said.

"And make him feel like an idiot at the same time?" Leah asked. She was trying her best to stop laughing; she couldn't.

"Well he should," I said. "How dare he not notice that London accent that completely does not sound like me?"

"Beats me," Leah said in between a breath, "I thought he'd catch us but he didn't."

"Well then," I said, "I have every right to make him feel like an idiot."

Cher and Leah just laughed harder.

The rest of our night passed in the same manner, laughing and joking, the talk with my dad absolutely forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I've just been so busy with college. Next chapter should be up by the 24th as a present for Boobear's birthday (it's not really a present tho, you will hate me for it).   
> Hope everyone is excited for Christmas. I know I am! :D  
> Anyways, I'm off to bed. Been bored all day, I'm tired of being bored. Sleep might do me some good. I'm talking nonsense, aren't I? Yeah ...   
> Leave me a comment or two. Make my day! :)


	17. Chapter Seventeen

**Nicole's POV**

Leah and I arrived at my building after dropping Cher off at her flat. A very excited Leah was ... excited to say the least – though I'm not sure how she was so lively at the moment considering the early morning five hour trip we'd just taken to get to London – about seeing my flat and staying here for a few days before taking a flight back to Toronto.

She looked at me as the lift doors opened to reveal a fairly lit hallway.

"Well, this is rather exciting!" she said as we walked down the hall towards my flat.

As we turned a corner, I ended up stopping Leah from going any forward. She looked at me confused but didn't ask anything.

I thought I’d just seen my father in the hall. So I peeked from behind the corner and saw that it was indeed my father. He slipped out of my neighbour's flat and went into mine. I couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing there. He looked over his shoulder as he went into my flat, and I quickly stepped back to avoid being seen.

The two of us waited in the hall until I was sure my father would've settled in completely. Leah looked at me questioningly this time but refrained from asking me anything.

We quickly walked to my door and went in to find my father letting out Ollie and Eddie from their carriers.

"Hi girls," he said, "you're quick."

He looked a little startled. I had to know what was going on.

Ollie - or Eddie - walked over to Leah's feet and started sniffing. Leah picked him up and walked over to the other one that looked lost.

My father didn't say anything about anything. In fact, it seemed like he was avoiding any eye contact with me.

We had a bit of a falling out the other day but we'd reached an agreement ... I couldn’t be sure why he was acting so weird. The two ways to find out would be to ask him or ask the neighbour - and I knew my father wouldn't tell me himself so that left the latter option.

As soon as my father left for this unknown meeting he had, I excused myself and asked Leah to stay put much to her dismay, and went back into the hall and knocked on the neighbour's door.

I waited ten seconds before knocking again. Okay, maybe I'd only waited five seconds. I knocked a third time only to hear my neighbour yell out,

"I'll be right there."

I heard the sliding of a chain and the removal of the deadbolt as he unlocked the door. A moment later, there he was standing with a surprised look on his face.

I couldn't speak. This was a terrible idea. I should've just left it alone.

"Are you here to apologise in advance this time?" he asked, eyebrow raised. He was looking at me as if I was a kid.

"Why was my father here?" I asked instead. I tried to keep my voice steady.

"Whatever do you mean?" He was not only acting suspicious but he was lying to me.

“I saw him leave your flat,” I said.

He turned serious.

"Step inside," he said quietly. I looked at him. He must be crazy if he thinks I'd step into his flat.

"Go on," he said, "look I get it, falling relationship with father, been there done that. I just want to explain to you what happened and it's not exactly hallway talk ..."

Hesitant but curious, I choose to step inside. I needed answers or I wouldn't sleep at night.

He closed the door and walked me towards the couch. I saw a few unpacked boxes lying around in the hall. He must've just moved here before the holidays because I'd never seen him before. Well, other than that one time I accidentally slammed the door on his face.

He gestured for me to sit, so quietly I took a seat.

"So I'll start at the beginning," he said. "I heard keys at your door so I came outside to apologise and thank you for the gift, I realise that we didn't get off on the right foot and that was majorly my fault. I'm sorry."

He looked at me while he waited for me to acknowledge the apology. After I'd nodded he went on talking.

"Of course, when I saw it wasn't you, I was going to head back inside except your father stopped me and asked to talk to me," he said.

He stopped talking and looked at me. It seemed like he wasn’t sure of what to say next. However, I kept quiet and waited for him to continue speaking. I wasn’t leaving before I had the whole story.

What he told me next, it was not at all what I would’ve expected from my father.

“Basically, your father is concerned about you and asked me to keep an eye on you,” he finally said.

“I’m sorry?”

“He just … he wants me to keep an eye on you,” he repeated.

“What do you bloody mean keep an eye on me?” I asked. “I’m 19, and for god’s sake I live by myself in London. I think he trusts me enough to take care of myself,” I said, my voice had risen with each word I said and so had I. I was standing now. I looked at him for an answer.

“Hey, it wasn’t my idea, don’t get mad at me,” he defended himself.

He was right. It was no use getting mad at him. He was merely the messenger … the middle person. And what had gotten into me? I don’t usually go around getting mad at almost absolute strangers.

“Wait a minute, why are you telling me this?” I asked. Thinking about it, it didn’t make sense. I mean of course I asked but he could’ve easily lied to me.

“Because, I don’t want to keep an eye on you,” he said. “I’m basically being forced.”

“Did my father say why he wants you to do this?”

“He was vague but he did mention you maybe seeing some questionable characters. His words, not mine.”

It was all starting to make sense now. This had to do with the promise I made him; and it was starting to become clear that he didn’t believe me. Why else would he get someone to spy on me?

I sat back down at the realization, lost in my thoughts. I can agree that I’ve had my share of arguments and misunderstandings with my father but this was out of hand and out of line. I promised him something and he of all people should know that when I give my word, I keep it. And yet, he was getting my neighbour to spy on me. What was different this time?

A shadow fell over me and I looked up to see my neighbour standing in front of me.

“I understand that I don’t know the whole story, but I’m sure he was only meaning to look out for you when he asked me to do this,” he said.

“That doesn’t make this okay,” I said. I could barely get the words out of my mouth.

“No,” he agreed, “no it doesn’t. But he is your father and he’s only thinking the best for you I’m sure.”

“But I promised him I wouldn’t, and I keep my promises. He has no reason to do this,” I argued. What for, I don’t know. What was the point?

“Look, as long as you don’t do anything that I might see and have to report to your father, this will go away real soon. And as far as he knows, you don’t know about this which means, you’re not breaking your promise. As soon as he’s satisfied you’ll keep your word, he’ll have no reason to have me keep an eye out on you anymore.”

“Or I could just confront him about this,” I said.

“Why make things worse by doing that?” he asked. “For both of us?” he added.

I sighed. He was right, yet again.

“You know I absolutely despise people that are right all the bloody time,” I said, looking up at him.

He laughed and shook his head.

“And I absolutely didn’t expect for you to be funny,” he said, smiling now.

I couldn’t help but forget my foul mood.

He helped me out of my seat and gestured to the kitchen.

“Come on, I’ll make you a cuppa. Tea always makes things better my mum says.”

“Thank you for the offer …”

And I just realized I didn’t know his name.

“David,” he said.

“Nicole,” I introduced myself. “Nice to finally know your name, but as I was saying, I can’t stay. I’ve got a foreign cousin sitting in my lounge waiting for me to show her around London town.”

“Another day then and bring your cousin over as well, I don’t live too far from you,” he joked.

“Will do,” I said politely. I made my way to the door and I was nearly there but I needed to do one more thing. Turning around I said,

“Oh and David,” he looked at me, interested in what I had to say. “I’m really sorry about the other day when I let go of my door and … it slammed in your face.”

“I know, I got your note,” he said. He was referring to the note I’d quickly scribbled and left in the gift basket outside his door before I left for the holidays. The very note that I’d forgotten (until now) I’d written in the first place.

“Right …” I paused. I had nothing else to say. “Well then, I’m actually gunna to go now.”

David laughed again. I didn’t think I’d said anything funny.

Regardless, I walked to the door and this time opened it and went out into the hall only to stop. Leah was talking to a woman, and she was holding onto one of my pups. I stood there until Leah who had just laughed at something this woman had said and had looked in my general direction.

“Oh and this is my lovely cousin Nicole,” Leah said pointing to me.

The woman turned a little to face me and introduced herself.

“Nice to meet you Nicole, I’m Emma your new neighbour.” She adjusted Ollie – at least I think it was Ollie – and put out her hand to shake mine.

“Nice to meet you too Emma,” I said shaking her hand. “I see you met my cousin.”

“Oh yes, lovely cousin you have here, very funny,” Emma commented.

“It must run in the family then,” I heard from behind me. It was David of course. “And I thought I heard you,” he said.

He came out into the hallway as well, the door closing behind him. He walked around me to get to Emma, and kissed her on the cheek.

“And you,” he said facing Leah, “must be the foreign cousin that Nicole was talking about. Lovely to meet you,” he said taking her hand and kissing it.

Emma rolled her eyes. She stepped closer to me and whispered,

“The moment he hears someone’s from another country, he’ll do things like that. Says that he can’t have foreigners thinking that us Brits are arses.”

I laughed at the disbelief in her voice. It was pretty comical. Emma chuckled with me.

Leah was pretty smitten with David’s charming ways. I basically had to pull her inside the flat. David was going to realize this was a mistake at one point. It might be too late then.

She snapped out of her little daze quiet quickly though, wanting to know what David and I had talked about.

“Nothing,” I replied.

“And you expect me to believe that you were in his flat for over 15 minutes talking about nothing right?”

“Leah –”

“Don’t Leah me Nicole. I don’t always ask for you to tell me things, so just this once, can you tell me what happened?” she asked. “Please.”

When I didn’t say anything for a couple minutes, she added,

“Nicole, I know you’re upset about something. Doesn’t matter how much you smile and laugh and try to make it look like you’re normal, I can still tell you’re upset. Maybe telling me might help you see something you didn’t before.”

“Alright. I suppose you won’t be talking,” Leah added after 30 seconds more of silence.

I really didn’t know what I was supposed to tell her, if anything. This should’ve just stayed between me and my father and there was no need for him to get David involved. It hurt that he couldn’t trust me enough to keep my promise but then he had to go and get a total outsider to spy on me.

All I can do now was prove my father wrong, and wrong I will prove him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO sorry for the delay in getting this chapter up! I was working from Jan-Apr, and I'm back at college now. I'm hoping to post more regularly starting Sept and hope to maybe even finish the story by the end of the year. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know in the comments :)


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